Thread: Wrist ache from stropping

Yes, that may not be a bad idea Ursus. It is often no single thing that causes stress injuries, and stropping may simply have been the breaking point for wrists that were already stressed.

How do you sit when you type? Do you do heavy lifting? Consider all of these things. And, if the pain does persist or seems easily brought bad, go to a doctor before it gets bad.

Gentlemen,

Your thoughts and suggestions are sound. Excellent points.

Tension causes a lot of damage, and wrist movement should be limited.

Regards,

Obie

Originally Posted by rahimlee54

My wrist is still I think it is the flip that is causeing the problem. I am pretty tense I"ll try to relax more like you said. I actually have a swollen knot on my wrist, that I didnt notice before today. I'll let that heal up and try some more.

You should not be using your wrist to roll the blade. This should be done in the same manner as rolling a pencil between you thumb and index finger.

+1 on consulting a medical professional...you've got a lot of life left to live and I think that wrist will come in handy

Category:Stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Are you sure it's stropping? Do you type a lot on a computer?

Its the stropping. I moved my strop down to around 3 ft off the ground and found a different way to strop. I had the strop to high, already a hook there, so my wrist was curling over to get the whole blade on the strop. Gave it a few swipes to try it out, gonna let this inflammation go down and resume. It is much smaller today than yesterday. Crazy only a little extra movement causing all the problem. I also got pretty tense doing it so I'll work on relaxing. My wife is a medical professional so I'll consult her tomorrow when I see her.

Thanks
Jared

I get the same problem sometimes, and I've been doing this for a couple years now. Seems to crop up particularly when something else is going on (my keyboard holder had sagged, lose my favorite pen and use one that isn't wide enough for a few days, too much shoveling, picking up my young children wrong) but stropping too much definitely can aggravate it. I think it is part technique, but I think some of us are just more vulnerable to this than others, and people that aren't vulnerable to it aren't going to necessarily understand.

Definitely rest - use your neglected once loved DE razors for a while. Ice helps. Anti inflammatories help. Doctor would help. Get ergonomic consultation at work so your typing doesn't agitate it - I just did this today in fact. Relax grip when stropping. Try different strop altitudes to get the optimal relaxed layout for you.

And when better I'd do wrist curls, reverse curles, crooked bar curls and other non-arm targeted weight lifting (basically any weight lifting ultimately strengthens the wrist since you have to use it to stabilize the bar even if you are doing shoulder or chest or back exercises) so that less stress ends up in the joint. So you heal the wrist, take stress off by improving technique, strengthening the muscles around the tendons and making sure other things in your work and home environment are aggravating the situation. And if it acts up again, rinse and repeat.

I also find dumb things like rubbing down the strop with my hand really drive my wrists and forearm tendons crazy, as does using a paddle strop for some reason. And some blades are weighted well, so stropping with them hurts more than with others, though it's a balance thing and not a heavy thing (my well balanced large razors are the least aggravating on my wrist for example, and a small unbalanced one puts way too much pressure on the fine wrist/finger muscles).

Originally Posted by rahimlee54

I had the strop to high, already a hook there, so my wrist was curling over to get the whole blade on the strop.

I might have this issue - so I'm going to lower my hook too and see what happens.

Through the evolution of trial and error, my wrist started getting a lot of work when first stropping. Then my body started to seek out a more comfortable position. My forearm is positioned perpendicular to move the blade back and forth and my body swings with the stropping motion and the fingers flip the blade. My forearm will angle a bit to the left and right as the blade strops. I can do hundreds of passes with this technique. It works for me and all of my razors sharpen up nicely from my stropping.

Everyone needs to find their comfort zone.

Good Luck!

Pabster