Thread: Overstropping?

Is it possible to overstrop, and what happens if you do so?

It is easy to overstrop with a pasted strop. You have to be very careful and use light pressure with very few strokes.

With a plain leather hanging strop, it is hard to over-strop. I have stropped hundreds of times on razors and they kept getting better.

However, you can DEFINITELY ruin the edge stropping. If you lift the spine while stropping, you will roll the edge and the razor won't shave anymore.

If you use excessive pressure on the strop, you can easily break off the cutting edge or roll it, and it will no longer shave.

These are the more likely scenarios with a plain leather strop.

If you are stropping correctly but are just worried about over-stropping, strop your razor about 25 times and then try shaving with it. You can do this repeatedly and as long as it keeps improving your shave, no problem. When you stop seeing a difference, stop stropping until the next shave.

If you don't know how to strop, then the advice is simple: DON'T LIFT THE SPINE WHILE STROPPING and use low pressure, just the weight of the razor.

If your razor has stopped shaving you, it probably needs to be re-honed.


Hope this helps!

Thanks for asking this one... it's been in my mind for quite some time, but I never really asked...
If you aske me I'd say that, if you are stopping the way the straight shaving god intended... nothing will happen since I figure that stropping is a stable thing, I mean... like an exponential curve. Quickly improving and then stabilizes... I guess.

I'm sure others will chime in and explain... BUT I might be very very wrong!

I think you mean logarithmic, but you've got the general idea

I know folks that have done many hundreds of strokes on both the linen
and leather sides of the strop with no ill effects -- just a sharp razor.
You can't overstrop if you are doing it properly, but if you are learning
then more passes will increase the likelihood that you damage the edge.

- Scott

Originally Posted by fpessanha

Thanks for asking this one... it's been in my mind for quite some time, but I never really asked...
If you aske me I'd say that, if you are stopping the way the straight shaving god intended... nothing will happen since I figure that stropping is a stable thing, I mean... like an exponential curve. Quickly improving and then stabilizes... I guess.

I'm sure others will chime in and explain... BUT I might be very very wrong!

You got the right idea. As long as you strop correctly, you can do no harm. It's like strops took the Hippocratic oath.

Originally Posted by sebell

...but if you are learning
then more passes will increase the likelihood that you damage the edge.

That's true too. Even someone who has stropped for years has a margin of error, however small. Add too many strokes and you just might screw up!

Since I'm brand new, I'm somewhat frightened by all this talk of rolling the edge, and such. Tell me this, just how easy is it to mess up the blade while stropping? What I'm asking is how large is the margin of error here? You people have me worried that the slightest pressure on the blade or the slightest droop in the strop is going to turn my razor into a butterknife.
Also, I notice that with no pressure on the blade, the center of the cutting edge doesn't seem to always contact the strop as if the blade itself is convex, or the strop is drooping in the middle. Anyone notice this sort of thing, or am I all screwed up?

minor strapping errors can be corrected by more strapping. i've never rolled an edge, and i am not that great of a strapper. i just take care never to bear down on the edge. occasionally i can feel the spine is not totally flat on the strap during a pass, but i have always just kept strapping with no noticeably ill effect to the blade afterward. i don't think there's any harm to strapping a lot - it's good practice

my mother visited today and when she saw my razor straps hanging on a doorknob, she perked up and loudly said, "Uh oh, you know what those are for!"

Any old time Okie from Muskogee knew that if Dad had to get out the leather razor strap, there was going to be trouble and tears!

Originally Posted by SH-60Pilot

Since I'm brand new, I'm somewhat frightened by all this talk of rolling the edge, and such. Tell me this, just how easy is it to mess up the blade while stropping? What I'm asking is how large is the margin of error here? You people have me worried that the slightest pressure on the blade or the slightest droop in the strop is going to turn my razor into a butterknife.
Also, I notice that with no pressure on the blade, the center of the cutting edge doesn't seem to always contact the strop as if the blade itself is convex, or the strop is drooping in the middle. Anyone notice this sort of thing, or am I all screwed up?

No need to be concerned. I use enough pressure to make a taut strop deflect about 1" in the center. If your razor is not making contact with the leather then you need to either adjust your stroke or the pressure.
Rolling the edge usually occurs when you lift the spine of the razor or there is to much slack in the strop.

Just my two cents,