Thread: Mid Shave Stropping?

I have found that stropping between passes seems to yield a smoother and more comfortable shave. I have a wirey tough beard that grows at some truly funky angles. Is mid shave stropping common or unusual? How many trips on the strop is common?

I am in the same boat, and mid-shave stropping has helped me greatly. I typically do 30 to 60 passes before the shave, then 5 to 10 at several points during the shave. Leather only.

There are some really good old threads about this; one hypothesis is that mid-shave stropping keeps the edge from ever really getting out of alignment, so you need fewer laps.

It has some detractors, but I'm not one of them.

Josh

You'll get plenty people on both sides of this issue. All I'll say is that the barber's manuals instruct barbers to strop during the shave and these were the manuals that were used to train professionals so they have perceived some benefit to it.

It is common wisdom that the razor must be stropped before shaving, but the razor's edge doesn't wait till the end of the shave to get out of alignment, and if the theories about recovery periods are true then the edge is in much better shape before the morning's stropping than it was at the end of the previous day's shave. While mid-shave stropping may not be strictly necessary, it seems to me that it probably has some benefit to the edge. But if you need to strop mid-shave to keep the razor from pulling then it's probably not sharp enough to start with.

Originally Posted by mparker762

It is common wisdom that the razor must be stropped before shaving, but the razor's edge doesn't wait till the end of the shave to get out of alignment, and if the theories about recovery periods are true then the edge is in much better shape before the morning's stropping than it was at the end of the previous day's shave. While mid-shave stropping may not be strictly necessary, it seems to me that it probably has some benefit to the edge. But if you need to strop mid-shave to keep the razor from pulling then it's probably not sharp enough to start with.

I agree! ... when the razor is really sharp, it never degrades during the shave!

Originally Posted by zepplin

I agree! ... when the razor is really sharp, it never degrades during the shave!

Perhaps that is true - time and experience will tell. I have a barbers hone coming this week which I hope will touch it up nicely. Is it true that this type of hone is for touch ups and is about 12k grit? I appreciate the comments.

I strop mid-shave; it is entirely possible that my razor isn't fully sharp, but as the stropping seems to help, I think that for a really tough beard (which mine isn't, it's probably too soft to shave well) stropping may be necessary even for a really sharp blade.

Barber hones vary considerably in grit, but are generally reckoned to be 3k-6k from other posts I have read. They are, however, very slow in action, although not as slow as a Wojtek Arkansas :-). So some hones are very rough, whereas others are fine enough in their effect to use for touch ups instead of a Norton 8k.

It all depends on the hone, and there were so many of them made that you'll have to suck it and see.

Originally Posted by zepplin

I agree! ... when the razor is really sharp, it never degrades during the shave!

I think you may have misinterpreted the first sentence of my post.

I believe the blade *does* degrade during the shave. It must be stropped before the next use, and the blade doesn't wait till after the shave to suddenly spring out of alignment; in fact there are reputable metallurgists that believe that the opposite is true - the blade realigns somewhat between shaves; which means that the blade was in worse shape during the last bit of yesterday's shave than it was this morning when you gave it that *mandatory* stropping to make it ready to shave.

The question is how much does the blade get out of alignment during the course of the shave? This is a determined by many factors like the hardness and number of the whiskers, the hardness of the steel, the resiliency of the steel, the sharpness of the blade, and the pressure and angle used during the shave. So I'm not surprised that some guys sense no degradation during the shave, but neither am I surprised that some guys do sense the blade degrading, nor am I willing to attribute this to a lack of sharpness - Feathers degrade tremendously during their first shave to the point where nearly every user comments on this (at least indirectly), yet they are incredibly sharp. But if you *must* strop mid shave in order to prevent the blade from pulling, then there's a good chance that it's not sharp enough to begin with (though as with so many things there are bound to be exceptions).

I strop mid-shave myself. I don't really notice much of a change during the shave (maybe a little less effort against the grain, but it's hard to tell), but I definitely think that the aftershave stings my face less if the razor gets 5-10 laps on the leather about 2/3 of the way through. This really shows up if I use something stout like Royall Lyme or Purell Hand Sanitizer. Maybe my opinion on this will change with some more experience under my belt...

I feel some razors degrade an apreciable bit, while others - not enough for me to discern.

This has to do not only with sharpness and angle, etc. but also with prep, imo. Sometimes I do minimal prep and I believe it's harder for the edge to deal with the beard. In some of these cases, with some of my razors, I actually experience benefit even stropping mid-pass (after doing the full right half and before going to the left)! If I don't strop, the razor still cuts well and I get a decent shave, and there is no *pulling* on the hairs, but I do feel it less smooth on the skin (esp. when doing a second pass and almost all hairs are gone, but the edge just feels harsh vs. velvety)

Cheers
Ivo

It may also be that guys with both wirey beards and cowlicks notice this more, because their beards do more damage to the blade, and also because they can't really control whether the blade is going with, across, or against the grain, so in parts of their face they wind up going against the grain on the very first pass.