Thread: Stropping::: Very very very Important !!!!

Originally Posted by elbonator

The return stroke (spine coming at you) should be done at a greater pressure than the away stroke.

Also there is a natural tendency to use more pressure on the away stroke without realizing it, because your thumb can produce so much torque on the shank without muscle involvement.

One thing I'm finding is when my edge is good it does not take a lot of strokes to get an easy, clean shave. (and I use a very small strop

What has peaked my interest is from another thread-

what's this with being able to skip through several shaves before stropping?

how do you get to that point?

Originally Posted by elbonator

The return stroke (spine coming at you) should be done at a greater pressure than the away stroke. This is especially true of older strops as the grain of the strop runs or points towards you.

I believe someone posted this a few years back that it came from an interview of someone who used to work for the Illinois strops. May not be relevent in today's age but I find it true of the older strops which I use.

Regards,
EL

That was me. I had a conversation with Bill Simon (it was long ago. I think I got the name correct???) either the son, or grandson of the founder of the IRS Co (now Fromm Int), and in the strop making business himself for over 40 years. He told me that a properly constructed strop would be made such that the leather grain runs towards the handle end, not towards the swivel. That thing about more pressure with the grain, and less against, was primarily in reference to the #827 Russia strop, but would also apply to any other strop, even with a less pronounced grain. He also mentioned that a properly constructed strop would be slightly thicker at one end over the other, but I can't remember which end. I suppose this would correspond to both the grain direction and how strop leather is cut. Any leather experts might want to figure that one out.

Anyways, the overall impression I received is that there is a lot more to strops and stropping than just taking any old piece of leather and slapping a razor on it. And in practice I've found that to be very true.

I was thinking about starting this thread weeks ago when I relearned to strop.
and how NOT to strop

take it from a born again, and again, and again straight guy
stropping IS king

I kind of wish there were more videos about stropping. There are a few good ones, but everyone STRESSES it so much, that I think it still gives newbies the feeling they might still be doing it wrong, and just confuses people more.

Pointing to, or creating resources should be even more important than just stressing importance.

Just a thought: I've recently started stropping in dim lighting. I'm a very auditory kind of person, but my eyes "override" my ears most of the time, so turning off/down the lights shifts my focus to my ears. This helps me when stropping because I can hear what I'm doing with each stroke. Give it a shot. Safely.

One tip I found is that the sound of the razor on the strop ought to sound quite similar, if not the same, for both the forward and return trips down the strop. If one sounds different than the other, you should examine your stroke more closely. IMO, it's easy to lift the spine a tiny bit on the return trip (toward you) without even realizing it. I think having a low-mounted strop amplifies this problem. (Not that a low-mounted strop is a bad thing!!) If you're paying attention, the sound will be a dead give away, though. At least, on my TM latigo it is.

Another thing that helps me is to think of "driving" the spine along the leather and just letting the edge follow along skimming the leather like a tail or something. You shouldn't be focusing on torquing the edge down or focusing on dragging the edge - that will come naturally. Look at it this way ... you'd rather do a pass where ONLY the spine touches and you don't even hit the edge than a pass where the spine lifts and only the edge touches.

Originally Posted by pjrage

Another thing that helps me is to think of "driving" the spine along the leather and just letting the edge follow along skimming the leather like a tail or something. You shouldn't be focusing on torquing the edge down or focusing on dragging the edge - that will come naturally. Look at it this way ... you'd rather do a pass where ONLY the spine touches and you don't even hit the edge than a pass where the spine lifts and only the edge touches.

This has always been my one tip for learning to strop correctly to new guys... Pay attention to the spine while stropping, if the spine moves correctly on the strop the edge will follow... Huge +1 with pjrage on this

Originally Posted by jcw122

I kind of wish there were more videos about stropping. There are a few good ones, but everyone STRESSES it so much, that I think it still gives newbies the feeling they might still be doing it wrong, and just confuses people more.

Pointing to, or creating resources should be even more important than just stressing importance.

Beberlin linked the Wiki on stropping which actually has quite good info, but I have to sorta agree with Alan's joke/statement at the Meet Up practice with a dull butter knife to get the muscle memory down I guess you could use a razor also....

The problem is not really the lack of info on the forum, it is the lack of practice, what I really noticed was how fast the confidence level in what some were doing fell apart when one of the old hands was watching... In other words they had no confidence in themselves.....Which to me meant that they were not getting positive results.....For instance even if somebody were to tell me I was stropping all wrong, I would listen politely and maybe try the difference in technique, but I would also confidently tell them that my way does work, and that I am getting good results with it.....

Also what was interesting was the speed differences between some of us old hands, it is definitely not about how fast you strop (within reason), it is about how smooth you strop.....

I have old hands, but am not an especially old-hand at stropping. Then again, I think, I have no issues with stropping a razor. One interesting aspect for shaving for me presently involves the argument my stropping thumb had with a tablesaw last year: it's completely healed but with the loss of a bit of tissue and some residual nerve damage, I cannot easily strop a razor with a thumb notch. Which is the pits as that shank style is my favorite.

Reading about the trouble some have with stropping is also a bit of a mystery for me as I have always thought it to be an easy motion. I know I shouldn't have said that as I'll probably turn the Friodur into a shredder for leather salads.