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

Originally Posted by pjrage

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!!)

My strop hook is mounted (very securely) to the wall, so that it is more about lower rib level, than at my gut level (yeah, I'm at that age). My away stroke ends up going slightly upward, and then my return comes slightly down. If I had to give an angle, maybe 15 degrees (??) where it is higher closer to the mount point. so... (belly-button side low) / (wall hook side higher)

What's the rule-of-thumb here? Should it be at belly-button level, always exactly parallel with the floor?

Thanks for anyone's input.

Sounds good to me.

Mine is probably at waist height.

Providing you're doing it right, you could mount it just about where ever you felt like, I imagine.

Is stropping that leather strap some guys use to clean their blades off before shaving?

I have been moving faster, but slow down every so often and watch my blade on the strop. I focus on keeping it nice and flat and try not to put too much pressure.

what gives me the biggest problem is I have pretty heavy hands, and razors that have smooth, thin handles sometimes are a bit interesting for me to turn at start of each stroke.

but I have not I think ruined an edge, yet. I've gotten 4 from honing pre-stropped, and shaved with them, after stropping myself noticed no differenece i the shave. not to say that I'm great, but I think I'm doing okay. I started on a cheapy strip of leather that I got with my first razor. when I moved to my gorgeous Tony Miller (I think even if I didn't like straights I'd have to have one of his strops, I'd find some excuse) I nicked it, I think I just got nervous. I sanded out the nicks, it's okay now, and haven't nicked it in a while. knock on wood. but it is 3" wide which means that almost never do I have to do an x, I do a bit anyways, to stay with the technique, but that 3" width sure is great.

Red

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.

Neat idea pjrage, I usually focus on the edge, I'll have to try that tonight

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 is similar to the mental "breakthrough" I had while learning to strop. My difficulty was getting the "flip" right. When I started thinking of it as rolling the spine under the blade instead of flipping the blade up over the spine it all fell in place. This kept the spine leading through all phases of the flip and no more nicks!

I hadn't thought about it until now, but that was part of an overall idea of stropping the spine with the edge following along for the ride (mostly).

I completely agree that stropping is a very important skill to have if you want to successfully shave with a straight razor. From some of the replies, it is obvious to me that mparker is correct in his assessment of the problem; people do not seem to understand the importance of proper stropping technique. For the most part, I think this thread has covered a lot of the important issues during stropping, particularly those made by pjrage and AFDavis. I just want to remind people of a couple of things that helped me greatly when I was starting: 1) the razor should be rolled on the spine; and 2) one should use the thumb rather than the wrist to do the flip. I consider these to be very important in addition to what has already been said. Also a few things that may seem obvious for some: adjust the stropping technique for different razors; heavier razors have a different feel than light ones. The geometry of the scales believe it or not and the tightness of the pivot pin are also factors to consider in addition to the width of the tang. All of these factors can affect stropping to a certain extent. My advice is to never think you know everything about stropping, you would be surprised.

Al raz.

I just wanted to let the other n00bs out there that stropping is indeed key. I had my third shave tonight, and the difference between this one and my first two is like night and day. I had issues with razors pulling during my first two, and was blaming my beard prep and the honing, however tonight I decided to strop the worst puller beforehand to see if it'd help. 20 laps on newspaper (my leather strop is on the way) and my razor had stopped pulling. I thought I'd buggered the edge and blunted it, until I wiped the blade and saw the stubble.

Seriously guys, stropping is key. If your blade is pulling, try giving it a few laps and see if it helps, before you reach for the Mach 3 or shavette to finish up - I managed a full WTG/ATG combo pass (WTG and ATG on sideburns, ATG on the small part of my neck that grows hair) before I reached for the Mach 3 to clean up the jawline and do my mo area, where previously the pulling would have made me stop by that point.

Originally Posted by honedright

I agree. Stropping is.............important

Did you say something Scott? must have missed it.


Stropping definitely is King!!!

Some time ago, Lynn asked me if I could do some drawings about stropping. (I think he needed them for a presentation or something). He encouraged me to share them on the forums. Somehow it slipped my mind, but this seems the perfect thread to post them. They're pretty self explanatory, and adhere the principle that your main focus must be on the spine. The edge will follow, as Glen already stated.

Originally Posted by Bart

... <a nice stropping animation and pictures> ...

There's gotta be a place for those in the WiKi.