Thread: razor sharpness. . .?

Today I laid my strop flat on my kitchen counter so I know there was no bend or twist in it and proceeded to strop my razor painfully slow. . . probably around 60 or 70 passes. I noticed that 'suction' effect that I've heard about.

I did one pass with the grain, sans the lower neck, and noticed a difference in the sharpness of the edge. I also lessened my razor angle and I think that helped too. Cleaned up the shave with my Slant/Feather. . .

Stropping is definately the key (EDIT: Or is it Keeeing...oops, bad pun... ). Even if a razor has been honed by an expert, if the subsequent stropping is not up to par, there is a good chance the shave will suffer.

Honing is something that is usually done on an infrequent basis, maybe once every 2 - 6 months or longer. You can easily get by without knowing how to hone. Just send your razor off to someone when needed. Stropping, on the other hand, is something that is generally performed before each shave and it's totally impractical to have someone else do that for you.

Stropping is by itself a fine art. Take your time to learn it well (practice...) and your straight razor will come to life.


Scott