Quote Originally Posted by BeBerlin View Post
Warning, wild speculation ahead.

A hollow grind forms a triangle strop-spine-edge. A true wedge would lie flat on a strop which is pulled taut. Would it not therefore make sense to allow for a limited amount of slack in the strop?
Bang on the mark Robin, not wild speculation at all since this is what I do and it works wonders.

Your theory is correct, and I've been meaning to post about it for a while now. Wedges not only lie flat, but many have smiles (in varying degrees) as well. I was getting ok shaves with wedges, not great. I took a look at how they sit on a fairly taut strop (as I would hold it for a hollow ground), low and behold it was not making contact along the entire surface. It was enough that even an x-pattern would not work well, at least with a 3" wide strop. The solution? And a bit of slack, ensuring that the entire surface is stropped for the FULL stroke.

I also increase my laps on both linen and leather. Between the slack and the increased laps it is like shaving with a new, better razor. Try it. It works.