Thread: Very nervous about doing my first Stropping today

Well I knew this time would come. I shaved on Sunday and its time to shave again.

I have a 3" wide strop. The videos I try to watch are of people stropping from a distance. They also don't zoom in.

I have Lynns DVD and I have watched Youtube videos. This whole X pattern has me confused my whole razor basically fits on the strop but I assume I should start with a X pattern anyway. Also the amount of times to strop differs with people.

grab a sheet of paper and fold it until you get it ~ 1" wide.
Grab it so ~4" show from your hand and strop with it. The goal is to not bend it while stropping. When you can do that you can strop your razor.

The "x" pattern is so the entire cutting edge gets stropped, if your strop covers the cutting edge then no reason to use the "x" pattern. My strop is wider than most of my blades so I only use on a "x" pattern when I have to

mainaman So it has to be that tight?

wpfontenot I just figured I have to learn it anyway since I will be honing my own blades one day. I just don't want to learn something the wrong way and then try to relearn later. But I will just focus without the X pattern.

How many passes?

I was nerveous about it to. I talked to my barber who is a great guy and spent an hour with me, showing me the technique. Maybe yours will do the same.

I wish he could but there not allowed to be used anymore due to potential of disease,bacteria or whatever can be transmitted. A barber was the first to turn me on to the shavette's

Do yourself a favor and read the 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing and stropping here . The last couple of pages are on stropping. Note the suggestion to practice flipping the blade between the tips of the thumb and forefinger . Follow what they say and take it slow and easy. I would say 30 linen and 30 leather should be good but don't start until you feel good with flipping the blade and only apply pressure on the spine as you flip the blade.

Ok I took a look at that PDF. Very good info. I'm going to print it out.

I practiced on paper and finally got the repetition down. That paper technique was a good idea thanks..

So I took it to the strop. I did a slow 20 strokes on the leather to try out. I know it was to slow so after that I did decided to do another 30 linen and 30 leather.

I prepped for shaving and I have to tell you this shave it seemed much smoother then the first shave with the razor. I'm not sure why. So I continued to shave. I decided to do another stropping for the ATG strokes. Is this ok that I did that?

I didn't do my mustache today but if I did I would have done that first since thats usually where the sharpest edge is a must.

It is okay to strop in between passes if you feel you need it. Leaving the mustache for last is what I do. The mustache and the chin. My razor is plenty sharp enough for many shaves and it leaves more time for the lather to soften the whiskers. I got that from an old set of instructions that came with a Gillette DE. Whatever works best for you though. We all have to try different ways of doing it and find which suits our needs.

Also it seems from the reading I have done that Stropping should be done before you shave.

Whats the amount of time between the strop and the shave? For example say you strop your razor then decide to sit down for an hour before shaving?

What exactly happens to the metal of the blade? Does it comes out of alignment quickly? Just asking because you never hear of someone stropping before and after every shave so the next time you shave you don't have to strop.