Razor Pressure on Strop

Hello Everyone,

I have been straight shaving for about 10 months now. I have everything down (for the most part) except... stropping.

My results are really inconsistent coming off the strop. I'm able to hone my blades to pass an HHT with no problems. I'll shave right after that, and it will be great. Then after a shave or 2, the blade feels really dull. I think my stropping technique needs work...

A few questions I was hoping to get some assistance on, and perhaps it will help other new people also...

1.) I was originally told that the only amount of pressure for a blade to the strop should be the weight of the razor. The Dovo 5/8 I have is very light, and I swear when I use a little bit of pressure, my results are better. In the stropping videos in the Wiki, based on the way the strop bows slightly, it looks there is some pressure being used.

My question is: Is the philosophy (for a 5.8 hollow ground anyway) of using only the weight of the blade for pressure just bollocks?

2.) When I do my strokes, I sort of go from start to finish on a stroke. Then stop, and come back start to finish. The videos I have seen, the razor is almost constantly in motion. I think my error here is that I'm going to slow.

My question is: Do quicker strokes help the stropping?

Thanks.

Quicker strokes definitely help. I want to say I read on here that you should average about 40-60 per minute. I worry about using too much pressure with my full hollow, but when I use my 1/4 hollow I definitely feel like more pressure helps and there is less risk of the blade flexing too much as it is stiffer.

If you've never read the 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing and stropping here it may be helpful. The stropping section is in the last couple of pages. It was very helpful to me. I keep enough pressure on the spine to avoid lifting it and rolling the edge. When I strop I pull the linen/leather taut and there is very little deflection.

I do consciously try to keep the pressure on the edge light and after I became proficient at stropping I began to move faster and going to and fro without stopping. Following a lot of reading in the forum archives in posts by AF Davis, mparker762, and thebigspendur I settled on 50 on linen or fabric and 50 on leather before the shave and 20 or 30 on leather afterwards. This has been working very well for me.

I think that the grind and size of the blade is immaterial when stropping. Correct technique applies in all cases for best results. Speed comes with practice and stropping at a good clip is fine. To go super fast may lead to disaster especially if the practitioner goes beyond their skill level. Practice will make perfect ..... if you're doing it right to start with. :)

I think ideally one should use as little pressure as possible.

It's also my impression that adding pressure will increase the comfort of the shave, but that it will also ultimately round the edge more quickly, necessitating a touch up honing after many fewer shaves than would be needed otherwise.

Regarding a really light touch on the strop, one member shared his technique a while back, which was basically to grip the razor as if making a shadow puppet of a bird (i.e. with straight fingers and thumb). Think of it as holding the razor as far from your palm as possible. When I tried this, it felt awkward as hell at first, but I could tell that it resulted in much less pressure on the strop. Also, on those occasions when I knew I was doing it correctly, I found that the blade seemed to improve far more than when I'd stropped my usual way.

That said, from what I recall of seeing various pros stropping in videos, they all seemed to use way more than "weight of the blade" pressure.

JimmyHAD, great post, I will be reading and rereading that again and again.


Sincerely,
David

I use enough pressure that is needed to keep the razor flat on strop you don't need to push your razor into the strop i'm sure it ill come more natural to you just get an old razor and practice every day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gary haywood

I use enough pressure that is needed to keep the razor flat on strop .

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Short and excellent point agree 100%

warpigs, keep enough pressure on it to keep it on the strop. Just like JimmyHad said! I think it can be a little confusing when you're told to use only the weight of the razor on the strop. And also try to get a nice even, fast stroke. Not to fast that the blade is a blur on the strop. Good Luck!

I recommend watching this video of Lynn stropping and shaving: Shaving videos - Straight Razor Place Wiki

As you can see, there's definitely some significant bending of the strop. He says he isn't putting pressure on it when he strops, so it's obvious that he's not pulling the strop so tight that it's stiff as a board.

Don't over-tighten your strop and make sure your blade is making good, full contact with both the spine and the edge. You shouldn't need much pressure really.

The pressure I use is about 150% of the weight of the razor. Works for me! As Gary and Jimmy have said, basically enough to keep the blade in the correct position.

Dont worry too much about speed until you are confident making the strokes or you'll roll your edge, nick your strop or drop your razor. And you dont want any of those things to happen..!

Work on getting a smooth consistent stroke and on flipping the razor over on its spine. If you want to practice, use a butter knife (or any knife that wont cut/mark your strop) and work on getting it right with that.

When I started I used to do a full lap (up and back) then pause while I flipped the razor over. My speed hasnt really changed though, and I guess you'd probably call it about the same sort of speed your arm would move if you were painting a wall, or there abouts. Not warp speed, not slow, but a steady smooth back and forth motion.

That whole thing you see in the movies where the barbers going "whap-whap-whap" at a million miles an hour is NOT the way to do it!

Check out the links that have been posted here as well. And check out part 3 of Lynn honing at RazorCon '09. Search youtube for "Lynn honing" and it'll come up.

Good luck!

Pressure with the blade is different between stropping and honing. For honing, you want the the lighest pressure possible (esp. at later stages). For stropping, you need enough pressure to get a good "draw" sensation. I am personally relatively heavy handed with the blade on the strop. But too much of anything can't be good...

-Chief

I'm still somewhat of a beginner at this but I think my stropping technique is (finally!) decent. (I recently got a new razor that gave me a terrible shave until after I stropped it -- so I must be doing something right.)

My technique is to use as little pressure as possible while keeping the blade in even, controlled, contact with the strop. One thing that I think helped me was the advice to flip the blade using just the fingers and not the wrist. I think this forced me to keep a very light, but in-control, grip on the blade and it is that grip that results in just the right amount of pressure against the strop. My theory, anyway.

I, too, have taken as a literal statement that the strop should be taught and that the razor should have no weight placed on it. The result is that my strop barely deflects (< 1/4" in the middle) and I essentially allow the tang and scales to rest on my fingers while drawing making the laps. I have to say that I've found the results less than impressive. After a couple of months I'm still getting mediocre stropping results, but at least haven't rolled an edge.

I noted that both the above wiki link and the old-timey barber on youtube have more play in their strops than the oft quoted <1/2 inch. They appear to be more like 1" to 1.5". Something is being lost between description and actual practice.

I am in no way suggesting that any of the stropping videos are incorrect, but that they are not really what is often described here as proper stropping. I'm thinking that the shortcoming is in that description.

I'm sure there are an number of reasons for my poor results some of which may have nothing to do with this discussion... maybe I should allow a little more play in the strop?