Thread: Stropping a Newbie on a Budget

Hello again,

Unfortunately I cannot afford one of the $47 strops that are over at The Well Shaved Gentleman, but I am in need of finding one so I was wondering if something like this would be sufficient for my purposes as a newbie? Is Scalpmaster a brand to avoid? Thanks for all the help you guys have given me!

~Opake

I don't know about the Scalpmaster brand, but the thing that makes me nervous is that it is made in Pakistan. I would avoid this unless someone has some good info on it.

darn ok would you have any suggestions...

Keep an eye on the Classifieds (above). Several members have made their own strops. I don't know what the costs or tools required would be, though. Search through the Strop and Newbies forums to find the info. I'll bet some of those guys will post here before too long. The Scalpmaster might be an okay strop, I just didn't want you to buy it and then get a bunch of posts telling you they are crap.

Hang in there.

If you are handy at all you can get one of Tony's bench strop kits for about 20 bucks and put it together yourself... Check it out HERE

as a newbie with no extra money, I've been stropping with a paddle made of cardboard with 1.5inch athletic tape on it. I put the tape length wise, edges touching. One side is pasted with some Lee Valley Veritas Green, and the other is clean. I'm sure its not the most elegant system, and leather may give me a better edge, I hope to aquire some scrap leather to make a strop. but until then it had provided a servicable edge on my razor.

In truth, any piece of smooth finished leather will work as long as there are no folds or other surface irregularites. In a pinch, you can even use your pants leg or the heal of your hand.

Although I've not personally used it, I read where some use newspaper with success, someone with more experience may want to chime in on this....

I have tried couple of times the newspaper and it works quite well. So my vote goes to newspaper this time. I don't own the scalpmaster if people strop with plain leather belt I don't know the reason why it won't work either.
That is another story is the belt or scalpmaster the most comfortable to use.
One suggestion is that you could try to catch vintage strops from ebay. Sometimes you could get them from a reasonable price.

check the vendors section. damon sells a lower priced strop as does kenrup