Thread: Question about how newbs butcher strops

Before I even start, any advice from the experts as to a good height to secure the end of the strop. Should the strop be level when pulled tight or should the secured end be higher than the end I grip.

The question has probably been answered many times but I'm a noob..

Cheers

miner,

The strop attachment height is a matter of personal preference. --Lotsa help, huh?

A reasonable start may be to take some strong string, or a shoe lace, or a leather thong type thing and fasten it to a door knob which will be about 3', or a meter for the rest of the world, and strop away. Old barber chairs had the strop attached at about that height or a bit lower, so the stroke away went downhill and the stroke back was uphill.

I have my strops hanging from a cleat on my bathroom wall which is about 42" or elbow height from the floor. (Actually the hooks in the cleat are exactly 42" from the floor, but that's carpenter OCD for you...) This way the strop is almost horizontal when I pull it taut; this configuration works well for me, but when travelling and I've brought a hanging strop, rather than the little Thiers Issard travel paddle, I loop the loop around a door knob and strop away, and that works just fine too. It's really not that fussy.

good luck, good shaving,

Now that I've been at this for a bit I figured I'd update this thread with and answer to my own question. Even after practicing on newspaper for days before using my strop...

First off Lynn was right. You break your focus or try to go faster than you're prepared and I can easily see you doing damage to your strop.

Secondly; and this could be categorized under going too fast. If you keep momentum of your strop stroke as you turn the blade. Even though you turn it on the spine, if you're still moving that blade at the end of the turn you just made a strop stroke into a hone stroke.

...learning muscle memory sucks sometimes.

I was pretty arrogant when I first started stropping, thinking that it was child's play, and I was more than coordinated enough to do such a simple thing without nicking/cutting/slicing my strop.

I ordered a replacement leather from SRD two days ago.

I'd still be on my first strop if I would have listened to the guys here.

lol in rowing 50% of our sport is learning muscle memory so basically that helps me in a lot of things in life- I learn by practicing and then I can pretty much do it without thinking- not with stropping though. Maybe now, but thats what I thought at first and I got a pretty big nick on my Illinois. Though this could be a chicken/egg situation- I nicked it while practicing to get more speed, so....

Moral is go slowly, no matter how good you think you are.

2 ways I managed to do it: one large nick due to the razor somehow slipping in my hand. Very tiny nicks at the very ends of the strop by flipping the razor too early. This effectively results in edge leading for a bit. This happens when I adjust the blade-scales angle when stropping a razor with a less than tight pivot pin.