Thread: When to start stropping ....

I have a razor honed by someone who knows what he's doing. I've now shaved with it twice.

I also have a Tony Miller beginner's strop. Legend has it that the first time I use it, I'll dull my blade rather than actually sharpening it. How long should I keep shaving without stropping? At what point does even a beginner's stropping make the blade sharper?

You need to have positive thoughts. If you think you will damage the edge stropping, you will.

Practice with a butter knife first. Practice flipping back and forth between your fingers and the motion.

Dont try to go to fast, speed will come with time. The only thing you will do trying to strop with super speed now is ruining your nice strop.

Originally Posted by Bootstrap

I have a razor honed by someone who knows what he's doing. I've now shaved with it twice.

I also have a Tony Miller beginner's strop. Legend has it that the first time I use it, I'll dull my blade rather than actually sharpening it. How long should I keep shaving without stropping? At what point does even a beginner's stropping make the blade sharper?

Hi Bootstrap!

You should be stropping before EVERY shave. Beard hair is tough stuff, and it will wear an edge down quickly.

If I were in your position, I wouldn't use the razor again until you've stropped it. If you do it too many times, you will dull it beyond what stropping can fix.

Newbie stropping will only dull your blade if you don't prepare yourself. As mentioned above, practice with a butterknife first. Read the Wiki on stropping and watch videos.A few basic points.

1. The strop should be pulled straight, but not tight. Use just enough pressure to get it straight.
2. The razor should be laid spine-first, then edge, on the strop before you begin. The spine should be leading the stroke. Focus on the spine as you strop.
3. Use no more than the weight of the blade to strop.
4. Flip the razor on its spine when you come back the other way, not the edge!
4. Use an X-pattern so that all of the blade is stropped equally.

People use all kinds of positions. Some have the strop high up, like Jockeys does. Some have it at waist level. Some have it straight out infront of them and stroke back-to-front, while others have it pulled across their body and stroke right-to-left. Experiment with what works for you.

When you feel you are making decent, reasonably consistent strokes, try it on your razor, and then have a shave. Your face will thank you!

+1 to Slartibartfasts comments!

You should really strop before and, ideally, after each shave from now on. Some people dont strop when they first get a shave ready razor, but if you keep not stropping you'll find your edge deteriorates quite fast.

I tend to do 25 material and 50 - 60 leather before each shave, and then 10 material and 15 - 20 leather after each shave.

The stropping afterwards cleans all the gunk off the edge and will really help you keep your edges in good condition.

Just keep your strokes slow and keep good contact with the strop. Dont go for the barber movie effect and sit there going "whapwhapwhap" as fast as you can, you'll roll your edge and nick your strop! The speed will come later.

Have fun and good luck!

+1 on what Cassie said. That's the best way to start

OK, I'll be stropping before my next shave. Thanks, y'all!

Many type of paddle strops are sold that are (by construction) totally flat, with no sag. When stropping with the hanging leather strop the first time or two, you can lay it on the edge of a table and strop like it was a paddle strop. (Reduces the number of variables - sagging - by one.)

My question has been answered in some of the previous posts sort of. Will a slow and steady motion provide the same edge as one of the frenetic "whapwhapwhap" things I've seen on YouTube and the like? I would imagine it's more about the pressure on the blade and the taughtness of the strop etc. and not so much the speed, am I correct? Mechanics over showmanship.

Lol I first read this and I thought "What a quandary is posed us by this guy". Strop and ruin the edge, or shave and ruin the edge. Lol. The butter knife is a great idea but most of all go slow. Slow and steady and LOTS of concentration.

Unless you're going *really, really* slow, then yes, you'll get the same results as if you were going really fast.

In order to strop effectively, you only need to be making, judging by the Wiki's description, over 30 strokes a minute. That gives you up to a full 2 seconds for a stroke which is really way more than even most beginners need.

For me, I can't make a good stroke unless I'm going fast enough. This doesn't mean I'm "fast" (I'm totally not, ha ha ha), but I have to get into a rhythm. It takes me a little under a second to make a full stroke, right-to-left and left-to-right. That's not very quick, but it's more than fast enough to be effective.