Thread: Razor Dulling & Stropping

Stick with it Kyle. There is a lot of information, I know but take the responses and PMs and read them over and over carefully. You have gotten good advice already. Just take some time to digest and process it. Then just figure out how to put it into practice. It is frustrating at first but it gets easier with time. All of a sudden it begins to click and then things start to come together. Use a couple of those other razors to get you through. You need to figure out what grinds, points and finishes/edges you like anyway. Once you get the stropping down things will level off quickly.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement fellas! I spent my free time last night stropping away at a couple of razors, and snuck in a test shave. It looks like some good progress has been made to the Imperial EHG by putting the strop on a table edge instead of hanging. Stropping like this is like black magic to me....you can't see a change, and you can't hear much going on, but it IS making a change to the edge. Crazy. Got my first strop nick though, but it's not too bad. It's toward the handle end, and mostly avoidable, but one of these nights I'll get out some sandpaper and smooth it out. I'll look into softer alternatives than canvas, like the Herringbone mentioned.

Originally Posted by lazyMlazyK

Thanks for the advice and encouragement fellas! I spent my free time last night stropping away at a couple of razors, and snuck in a test shave. It looks like some good progress has been made to the Imperial EHG by putting the strop on a table edge instead of hanging. Got my first strop nick though, but it's not too bad. It's toward the hand end, and mostly avoidable, but one of these nights I'll get out some sandpaper and smooth it out.

Great to hear...the progress that is, not the nick. Remember, to begin with, don't even worry about the blade flip. Just go one stroke, stop, flip gently and reverse. The muscle memory takes a while. It seems sophomoric but it really is true. Think of learning to play guitar or any stringed instrument. You have to learn chords and other techniques but the biggest hurdle is coordinating your hands and your brain.

Do yourself a favor and get a stick of green chrome oxide and make the pasted strop we talked about. That will help a ton at maintaining those edges. That Imperial Extra Hollow is a great shaver with a Thuringian edge and you should be able to keep it really crisp for a long time maintaining it that way

The nicks I put into my strop while I was learning have been fixed, I'm still using it daily.

I put a small amount of contact glue under the flap and pressed it down resonably firmly (with a bottle or something similar) but not so hard that it dents the leather. I used one end of a jade roller that I use for my face because it's stays nice and cold (the other end for my face).

That made a nice tight glue down and no big lump where the glue is.

I then wiped off the excess from the strop and when it was dry I used a block or wrapped the bottle etc with fine w/d to make it smooth.

I did go over the whole strop gently so i didn't just have sanded spots.

I then wiped the strop with a damp cloth to get the sanding dust off it.

Then palm rubbed to get a bit of oil on it after it was dry.

I'm sure there are much better methods but this is mine and it works for me.

I had to fix that strop a few times, still do but very occasionally now.

An extra hollow ground razor has very little support behind the edge. Thus, it is easy to develop some misalignment of the edge during the shave. Stropping helps realign the edge so it shaves better. The effect is surprising. I have tried shaving with a razor I have sharpened and found the edge to be rather dull. However, after stropping, the edge is both keen and smooth. I never would have thought stropping would make such a difference, but it does. Thus, you need to get a good strop and you need to develop good stropping technique.

I have a very tough beard. I love shaving with my Boker Extra Hollow, but I only get a few shaves before the edge needs to be refreshed. Those with less coarse beards can go a lot longer. Some say that they can maintain their edge indefinitely using pasted strops with fine abrasives.

Tony Miller is a member of the forum. He is a great guy and he makes some wonderful strops. If you are economically challenged as many people are these days, Tony makes plain vanilla and plain chocolate strops that sell for $55. They are a great value for beginners. If you can afford one of his premium strops with real flax linen components, then you will not be disappointed, but I suggest you wait until you stropping skill improves before you order one. When you are new to stropping, it is common to nick your strop. Once you master the flip at the end of each stroke, such mishaps are uncommon. You can replace the leather component if you nick your strop badly; minor nicks can often be sanded out.

Many of the "linen" components of strops are either synthetic materials or cotton canvas. Stopping on authentic flax linen is a much improved experience.

The last cut i made to my strop was really stupid. I had spent some time on the stones, cleaned off the razor, turned to my strop and started edge first, umm yep.