Thread: Worries about strops

I bought the pre-sharpened 6/8 Dovo tortoise special from SRD, the Filly strop from RupRazor, and some additional chromium oxide from ChrisL in the classifieds here.

I had the strop before I got the razor, so I practiced with a butter knife. Good thing. Although the razor from SRD is pre-honed and tested, a note in the package recommends stropping before first use. Because of the practice, that went pretty well (and the Filly is still nick free, but that could change).

It was good to know that the "pulling" on the first shave was due to my technique (blade angle) since the razor itself had been professionally honed. Another clue that it was me was that the pulling wasn't consistent--only on some strokes and not on others.

It's good to have a narrow, two-inch wide strop to force me to learn/use the X-pattern, but when I get the final nice strop, I want it to be three-inch. If Tony Miller was in production now, I might have got a three-inch with additional practice strop (not taking anything away from SRD strops, I just like Tony's).

With the chromium oxide on the back/rough side of the Rup Razor, and the free honing certificate from SRD, it should be a long time before I need a barber's hone, etc. For know, I can just concentrate on shaving technique.

Hope this helps,

Thank you all for your input. Today I decided to go with the 2" latigo and dovo best quality combo. I hope my choice serves me well.

Sounds like a good choice, just take it slow and easy with the stropping, learn to walk etc. If you haven't already, do take a look at the Barber Manual linked by Jimmy above. Good luck.

Good call going with the SRD strop... Although, I would highly recommend giving them a call and upgrading to the 3'' version... It's just so much more user friendly, and gives equally good results... This is just my opinion, mind you, but I vastly prefer the three inch, I think it's WELL worth the price change...

YMMV, though.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Jeremy