Thread: Stropping only on pasted strops

Originally Posted by jimmyh

I was thinking of just reducing the number of strokes so you don't over hone. Maybe just 2 passes per side or something.

Though maybe you really do want to do a bunch of passes on smooth leather and just touch up less than daily but still fairly frequently.

I shave much less often than every day (probably a couple dozen times this past year) so I don't have to worry so much about overhoning, and have to worry more about corrosion between shaves.

Yes well that makes all the difference since you are not shaving with the straight that often and therefore not getting on the paste on a daily basis. The only other thing I would take into consideration is the leather aligning the edge. It seems to me that the fine and micro thin end of the bevel benefits from the strokes on the leather.

I used to go linen/leather and than read in the 1961 Barber Manual excerpt on honing their stressing the point of stropping on leather only after the hones. I was somewhat resistant to changing my routine but I have and it seems to be bringing just as good a result.

Some of this stuff is so close in the results that it is hard for me to know if one way is better than another as the differences can be so subtle.

JimmyHAD, would you explain more fully your statement above...

"stropping on leather only after the hones."

Do you mean by that only that you are skipping the linen?

After honing I strop on linen as well as it helps to get the edge really dry.

Originally Posted by LarryAndro

JimmyHAD, would you explain more fully your statement above...

"stropping on leather only after the hones."

Do you mean by that only that you are skipping the linen?

Yes, in the barber manual excerpt they specifically instruct to strop on leather only after the hones. They go on to say that once you've shaved with the razor you should strop on the linen first before the leather for your future shaves until you return to the hones.

I've brought this up in a thread to try and find out what other experienced members think and it is one of those 'subtle differences' things apparently. IOW, no definitive answer AFAIK.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Yes, in the barber manual excerpt they specifically instruct to strop on leather only after the hones. They go on to say that once you've shaved with the razor you should strop on the linen first before the leather for your future shaves until you return to the hones.

I've brought this up in a thread to try and find out what other experienced members think and it is one of those 'subtle differences' things apparently. IOW, no definitive answer AFAIK.

I had read and adhered to that barber manual rule as well. I guess I still adhere to it since the LAST thing I use, chrome ox, I follow with leather only. However, just prior to chrome ox, when I'm using 1 mic then .5 mic diamond sprays, I strop on a homemade plain hard felt then denim bench strop about 10 passes on each. Unless I'm imagining it, such a practice seems to provide a smoother final edge. Still in the experimentation stage with it though.

Chris L

This barrage of information is making me vertiginous. I think at last count we had 37 materials which could be used (lemme see, permutations of 37 things used 2 at a time is...) in a bunch of ways.

And I don't think we got to either newsprint or denim yet.

Uff da, the room she's all a swirl.

I used to be against pastes on the daily strop though I've since changed my mind. If the linen is abrasive (as I believe it to be) then the question of pasting the daily strop really comes down to "how abrasive do I want it to be" not "do I want it to be abrasive at all". Regular use of linen will round the edge the same as pastes, only much slower because it's not as abrasive. And linen can sharpen an edge the same as pastes only much slower because it's not as abrasive - slow enough that it's not something you really want to do, but nonetheless it's doable. I once brought a dull Wostenholm to shaving sharpness with roughly 1400 laps on an unpasted linen strop.

Traditional linen seems to be fairly abrasive as fabric goes, and seems to do a good job of maintaining the edge and can even be used as a touch-up hone if the thought of doing a hundred laps or so doesn't bother you. Cotton on the other hand is much slower but seems to produce a somewhat sharper edge, however it is slow enough that stropping can become laborious, so a mild polish can speed it up so that it is more comparable to traditional linen or even slightly faster. Since genuine linen of sufficient quality for razors seems to be a disappearing commodity this is a worthwhile technique. My favorite abrasive for cotton strops is the Harbor Freight white rouge stick (~$4 for a lifetime 4"x1" crayon). I lay it across the strop and rub it back and forth one time and it's good for about a week of use (it's not sticky so it seems to fall off the fabric after a few uses). I don't know if the other white rouges sold in other hardware stores are equivalent or not.