Thread: Stropping Query

Sorry, more of an abstract thought really...

I have read that one of the main reasons to hone with a x pattern is to create microscopic striations in the blade at an angle which helps with cutting (also to ensure good heel to toe coverage .. which incidentally means that the centre of the blade gets double the grinding on a thin hone?!).
If this is correct then surely it is important to strop in the opposite direction to which the blade was honed as I have also heard that stopping is done to straighten the blade and align the striations.

So If you hone left to right (blade forward) then you should strop right to left (blade backwards). (assuming the scales are held on the same side)

I only question this because I believe my stropping is appalling and am trying to improve but since I havn't as yet developed a technique I often strop with different hands and in different directions.

Also if the above is correct then how can you ensure (without a microscope) that you are stropping in the correct direction for a blade honed by someone else?

Cheers Sillyfishyboy.

I think you should keep practicing your shaving and beard prep techniques, and just strop in a normal fashion for now. the nuances of stropping striations are finer than those of shaving and beard prep technique

Also I could be wrong sure, but I don't think it is important to align the striations in order to get a good shave - there are many other factors that are first more important to iron out. I have been working on those greater factors for several hundred shaves and have not yet refined them to the point where I can notice the striations making a difference in my shaves. Maybe it is time for me to experiment...

Check out the 1961 excerpt from a barber manual here . It is the chapter on honing and stropping. It explains how to use an x pattern on a hone and avoid too much wear in the center.

The last couple of pages on stropping are very informative and should give you something good to go with.

Somewhere in the bowels of SRP there is a similar discussion (probably a few actually, but I only tend to remember the ones I was involved in )

Honedright I believe strops in the way you suggest, and I think Glen says he does too - and we have all heard of the edges Glen and Scott get.

There is probably something to it - stropping so as to follow the general striation pattern left by the hone - but I think it must be more an efficiency thing than anything else. After all, leather is non-abrasive (at least in the short-medium term) so it is not as though you are following where the hone left off when you strop.

I did a little crayon video experiment to show the patterns left from X-honing and then normal stropping. To me it looked like you end up with cross-hatching (strop pattern is opposite to hone pattern). But to get the patterns aligned required, for me, a very unnatural stropping stroke that I just know would end with a cut strop if I were to pursue it.

So, while this type of minutiae is interesting and most likely valid, I think from a practical point of view your safest bet would be to not worry about it until you gain complete mastery over your stropping technique (don't worry, it only took Scot, Glen, Lynn et al 30 years to get to where they are... )

Good luck!!!

James.

It is not correct.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Check out the 1961 excerpt from a barber manual here . It is the chapter on honing and stropping. It explains how to use an x pattern on a hone and avoid too much wear in the center.

The last couple of pages on stropping are very informative and should give you something good to go with.

I'm glad you provided this link, Jimmy. I took Alan aka AFDavis' advice a long time ago and not only read those 4 pages but I printed the fourth page out and actually taped it on my bathroom wall above my strop. It's actually still there approx 1 1/2 years later for decoration.

One of the most critically important instructions on proper stropping that is often missed and as such results in many many more strop nicks than otherwise occur is NOT part of the actual written manual; It's actually what that particular student wrote (thank you unknown barbering student from yesteryear) on the bottom of page 4 which he numbered as "1.". I'll give it a crack from memory and not cheat by looking at that link:

"The razor should remain on the strop at all times during the stropping procedure." Yep, I memorized that notation. When I followed that advice and stopped lifting the razor off the strop during stropping, not only did I reduce strop nicks down to almost zero, my edges improved dramatically.

Chris L

Thanks for the helpful 'as always' replies. I think your right in that I just need to practise my basic stropping technique without worrying to much about the minutia.

I have quite a long commute and so I end up having some rather in-depth discussions in my head that are not always helpful or welcome, I guess I was more thinking that since I havn't developed a technique yet surely it is better to consider this type of thing now when there is going to be a learning curve to anything I do, and I only have a cheap strop and razor to damage rather than trying to change my technique later.

Also if am thinking of getting a new strop as my old one is pretty nicked and if the above theory is not correct and stropping direction doesn't matter than I may be better with a wide strop to aid with stability.

Posted these links in another thread, but they are probably more appropriate here.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...razor%27s+edge
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...straights.html

Have fun reading through all the info and browsing the pictures.