Thread: 5th shave not as good

Originally Posted by Disburden

If you're new to stropping you can also quickly dull a very sharp razor in minutes. Are you sure you're stropping correctly with enough draw and you're not under drawing on the strop or stropping incorrectly altogether? This was my problem when I first started. I dulled a few of my razors within a week of using them.

Hi Nick,

Thanks for joining in. No, I don't know if I'm stropping correctly. I had thought I was. I've read the wiki and watched the videos. But as I'm sure most everyone here knows, reading and watching is sometimes easier than doing.

I've understood keeping the strop taught (sp). Doorknob height seems about right for me. I know that a bit more pressure is needed than just the weight of the razor on the strop and that too much will round the edge. Somewhere between 25 and 50 complete laps are usually a good number, depending on the blade.

With that limited knowledge, I have four stropping sessions under my belt with a Miller learner's strop. No linen.

What I thought was enough pressure may in fact have not been. I don't know. What do you mean by "stropping with enough draw" and "under drawing"?

I've been concentrating on a somewhat slow, deliberate x-pattern stroke on the strop with the edge following the spine. I've also been watching to be sure the whole blade stays on the leather, not just the back or edge. I've caught myself a few times thinking/realizing that the edge was off the strop ever so little and that it needs to stay down.

Kev

Originally Posted by kevbell

I've been concentrating on a somewhat slow, deliberate x-pattern stroke on the strop with the edge following the spine. I've also been watching to be sure the whole blade stays on the leather, not just the back or edge. I've caught myself a few times thinking/realizing that the edge was off the strop ever so little and that it needs to stay down.

Kev

Hi Kev,

I've been sweating my first strop which I will be doing tomorrow. I too have been doing the slow, deliberate x-pattern, which is what the instructions that came with my strops say to do. Not super slow, but maybe 1 second up, and 1 sec. down the strop. Is that too fast? Too slow?

I'm usually a 'too much pressure' kind of guy. The saying among the men in my family (especially while fixing cars) is "Tighten until it strips, then back off 2 turns."

So, I'm planning to err on the side of very light pressure and see how that goes. Thanks for bringing this up though, every little bit helps, that's for sure.

I've been practicing a heck of a lot with a butter knife, but I don't know how close that's getting me to the real deal.

WP421

Originally Posted by warpigs421

Hi Kev,

. Not super slow, but maybe 1 second up, and 1 sec. down the strop. Is that too fast? Too slow?

I'm usually a 'too much pressure' kind of guy. The saying among the men in my family (especially while fixing cars) is "Tighten until it strips, then back off 2 turns."

So, I'm planning to err on the side of very light pressure and see how that goes. Thanks for bringing this up though, every little bit helps, that's for sure.

I've been practicing a heck of a lot with a butter knife, but I don't know how close that's getting me to the real deal.

WP421

I can't tell you if that's too fast or slow. I'm sure someone will give us an idea.

And as long as you don't have to tell your wife/gf/both to tighten it until it strips and then back off a couple, everything else should be aaallright.

kev

Interesting thread for me as I'm having similar issues...

Had my two razors honed by Glen and they were sharp as could be...

Ruined one edge shortly thereafter by rolling (rolled the wrong way two passes on a leather strop when I wasn't thinking) as well as nicking on my belt buckle (don't ask)...

The other razor started as an excellent shaver. On my tenth shave or so now though and slowly degrading every shave. Still pops the hair off my arm... but doesn't seem to pass a HHT... Stropping 25 on canvas and 50 on leather before every shave; with at least 10 on canvas and 20 on leather afterwards to clean off the blade.

Blade is starting to pull a bit and irritate the neck as well. Maybe I need to add an XTG pass? My beard is quite thick. Stropping mid shave helps briefly, but not for long...

Sigh... this is clearly not a hobby yielding quick results... good news is my rehoned blade should be back soon... bad news is I leave for a 4 month military deployment in two days, blade may not be back soon enough!

Cheers,

- HJ

First of all, thanks everyone for your advice.

I decided to shower and shave tonight. I couldn't stand three days growth anymore.

Before the shower, I stropped about twenty on the practice strop. Then I moved to the linen for around thirty and the the good 3" strop for about fifty. I decided not to "baby" the stropping, and to apply a bit more pressure. It certainly felt and sounded a bit different than my last outing.

One thing I did notice on the practice strop was that a few times on the stroke toward the door, the toe of the blade left a arcing lighter colored drag mark. Frustrating. I think this is from uneven pressure on the strop with the razor. While doing the x-pattern, the anchor end (head) of the strop would twist also.

I concentrated more with the good strop and this didn't happen.

After the shower I made up some Tabac and Wars and kept it looser that the last time, also.

Anywho, the shave was much better than last time. Hopefully, it was insufficient stropping or bad technique last time and improved this time.

It took several passes but I am once again pleased. I read somewhere that you can probably count on as many passes with a straight as you did with a DE or SE. This was true tonight. Rarely am I a two pass kind of a guy, unless I absolutely have to stop. My beard grows every direction I possibly can, and that is in just one area.

Against the grain is out of the question for now. I tried, ever so lightly, a couple times. The razor stopped dead in its own tracks. A couple xtg were successful, though.

So.....we'll see what tomorrow brings......

Good shaving,
kevin

Seemed like the stropping idea could have been the issue. Also how does the razor stop dead in it's tracks when you go ATG? That seems like another issue to me also, like the razor may have been dulled by improper stropping. Next time you strop try a higher count of Linen and leather, something like 40/100. See if this eases the difficulty of the ATG pass. The razor should cut easily ATG, even on your neck as long as you stretch very tight and have a good angle. The razor should be almost completely flat on our face when you go ATG.

I do the same amount of passes with a straight that I did with my DEs. The only difference is, my neck feels smoother when I rub it atg, and my skin is a lot better than it has even been with a DE.

I wonder if starting out with latigo is a contributing
factor to stropping difficulties. A flatter, smoother
leather with less draw might be more appropriate.

Anyways, I recommend 60/60 as the number of
passes each day before shaving. I think I may do
an experiment with leather only to see how that
goes so I can be of more help to new shavers who
don't use linen.



- Scott

It's hard to say if you're even stropping incorrectly, I think I was lucky enough to see that I was doing it wrong rather quickly. If you're hearing a light swiping feedback noise when you're stropping, then you're doing it wrong. The sound should be muted and full sounding, with draw on the blade (a form of resistance on the leather if you will). Speed also makes the stropping more effective. We go slow when we learn, because we don't want to ruin our razors or our strops with nicks, but going slow really doesn't do much for the blade other than help you learn the motion better and help the blade in the long term by developing muscle memory.