Hey guys,
My wrist has been acheing from stropping for the past 4-5 days. How can I prevent this, or does it just need to build up. I am pretty young so something must be wrong.
Thanks
Jared
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Hey guys,
My wrist has been acheing from stropping for the past 4-5 days. How can I prevent this, or does it just need to build up. I am pretty young so something must be wrong.
Thanks
Jared
Your wrist shouldn't be moving, so most of us wouldn't know about the problem.
My guess would be that you're tense, causing irritation to the tendons/nerves. When you strop you should be nice and relaxed so that all the joints can smoothly flow through the motion... being tense will result in discomfort and uneven stropping.
Try taking your razor to the strop and really pay attention to where you might be holding tension. When you notice a 'layer', just take a deep breathe and do *nothing* about it. The goal is not to 'stop' tension but to release the habit of tension... inhibit the process.
Good luck!
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.
BKratchmer's post reminded me of my instructors when I was learning to skydive - they kept saying that you need to relax in freefall - if your muscles are tense its harder to control your body position - boy was that counter intuitive - relax your muscles in a 120 mile per hour breeze (yeh thats gunna work runs through your mind)
But it does - there will come a "click" moment where your muscles and arm\hand motion will come together.
If you have inflamed your wrist - I would suggest you wait a good few days after you "think" its okay before you start back with repetitive actions like stropping - better to let it be fully healed then chance inflaming it again too soon.
A knot in your wrist? I think BKratchmer is right. That's like super tense. I don't know what you do to relax (yoga, music, hot shower, etc.) but just before you strop would be a good time to practice it.
Wow ! Stropping requires such a light touch. I can't imagine it causing stress but maybe the action is triggering previous injuries or such.
How many laps have you done total this week? I have developed a tired wrist when I had to strop 5 razors in a row on linen, CroOx and leather, 50 laps each. In my case, it is sometimes just too much stropping in one day!
Hey there.
First of all, if your wrist hurts, do NOT strop again until the pain is entirely gone. I can tell you from experience that repetitive stress injuries are extremely unpleasant, and often not fully curable. You don't want to wind up in that position.
Second, I am curious as to how you are stropping. The proper stropping motion requires an extremely light tough. Also, the blade is flipped using mostly the thumb and the forefinger. The wrist should be doing almost no work.
I would highly recommend that while your wrist is resting, you take a look at the stropping section in the Wiki and read up on your technique. And when you feel better, try to "flip" in mid air, no strop. Watch how you're doing it. See if you can figure out ways to loosen your muscles as you flip, and do it with fewer muscles involved.
Proper stropping should be 30-60 passes, light touch, and almost no wrist involvement. It should not be aggravating your wrists. If it is, your motions are either incorrect, you are stropping way more than is needed, or you are way too tense.
Consult a medical professional. He/she will be advice what to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by MistressNomad
I agree what cassie said. If it hurts, stop straining the wrist until it heals (stropping, whipping lather, etc). I'd even go to the extent that when the pain is gone, avoid it for a while until it has healed properly. But YMMV.
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
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by rahimlee54
+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 :)
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).
I might have this issue - so I'm going to lower my hook too and see what happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by rahimlee54
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
you might also, when feeling better, practice stroppnig with something other than your razor....no fear of messing anything up, and you can relax and practice 100 strokes....
louee, rah,Quote:
Originally Posted by loueedacat
There may have been a couple of reasons the old barbers had the strop hung from the chair so the attachment was slightly below waist high - it may have been a more strain neutral height. I dunno. My strops are hung from hooks on a well anchored board at elbow height so I just pull the strop straight back with my shoulder and I don't have to work my stropping arm either uphill or downhill. And I use the finger and thumb roll on the shank of the razor with minimum wrist turning - but I still use some wrist turn, not much, but some.
The finger roll works best on razors without a thumb notch. Those Le Grelots 1/4-1/2 hollows which shave so well can be a son-of-a-gun to strop with great facility particularly after you've cut part of the end of your thumb off. :aargh:
:beer2:
It's normal that initially your wrist will feel stiff / sore because you will be making unfamiliar movements. Try to keep relaxed. If there is a lot of tension, you risk tendonitis.
If you give the 1961 barber manual excerpt from the SRP Wiki help files a read here (last two pages) you'll find some good tips on proper stropping that may help to alleviate the condition. Notably practicing flipping the razor between the tips of the thumb and forefinger without making the stroke. The wrist , as noted by previous posters, does not turn.
I was a wrist turner when I began. Upon reading the barber manual excerpt I relearned stropping with some difficulty. It is hard to break bad habits but doable. No more chipping little bits on the edge of my strop on the return pass once I stopped turning my wrist and slapping the blade audibly on that return pass.
A + 1 with Bruce on the height of the strop. I too, taking a lead from the old barbers I've observed, hang my strop just below waist high. Hanging the strop from a door knob works out perfectly for my particular height. Get well soon. :)
I dropped my strop way down, the bottom hits the baseboard when it hangs in place, the top is below waist high. It is way easier to strop down there. Before I had it around elbow height.
You could try changing your pattern. If you do an X pattern you might try a heel to toe down and toe to heel back motion. Or vice versa. Or change up the pattern daily just to change up the repetition a bit.
change to a paddle strop.