Thread: Can I wait over a week to strop for the first time

Just want to throw my hat in with the "Wait" crowd. Believe me, you don't want to shave without stropping... even bad stropping technique is better than no stropping!

Are there any DE shavers reading this? If so, how many shaves can you guys get from one blade? Since DE blades are not stropped, the average number of those shaves, divided by 2 should give open bladed shavers a reasonable idea of how many shaves are possible without stropping.

Maybe

Yep - wait till you have all of your equipment. A razor AND a strop are deemed minimum requirements for a reason.

Take that time and start to really map out your whisker growth. I cannot emphasize enough how important knowing the patterns and directions of whisker growth are for a good shaving experience. The blade to skin angles change as shown below. If you are making a pass and the whisker direction is changing, you will need to learn to adjust your angle on the fly during the pass. So spend time mapping this out - you will be glad you did.

Oh yeah - welcome aboard - the water's great!

Originally Posted by Alembic

Yep - wait till you have all of your equipment. A razor AND a strop are deemed minimum requirements for a reason.

Take that time and start to really map out your whisker growth. I cannot emphasize enough how important knowing the patterns and directions of whisker growth are for a good shaving experience. The blade to skin angles change as shown below. If you are making a pass and the whisker direction is changing, you will need to learn to adjust your angle on the fly during the pass. So spend time mapping this out - you will be glad you did.

Oh yeah - welcome aboard - the water's great!

Forgot the picture

Welcome July10newbe! After seeing high magnification pictures of a freshly honed edge, and then the same edge after one shave. I would wait for the strop. There was a good bit of damage to the edge after one shave. Then the same edge after proper stroping was restored to about 97% of what it was before the shave.

A really sharp razor is a joy to use. A damaged edge is a drag.

Silver2

I made the mistake of getting a "buy it now" strop with "free delivery" on ebay so I could start shaving sooner. Bad idea. The strop has a natural crack in the leather from the top down the middle to about half way down.

There's no way I'm going to use it so I'll have to wait for my proper strop to show up before I can have my next shave. Luckily my razor was honed up and stropped for me by ShavedZombie so I had a few good shaves before I had to set it down.

I thought I was being smart by getting a cheap one to practice with. Nope.

Get a newspaper, take three or four sheets, fold into a paper strop, lay said strop on flat surface and strop away. It's good practice so you might not nick your new strop as bad and you're less likely to roll the edge this way than you would with a hanging strop. Add the bonus of the ink on the newspaper is a superfine abrasive, much less abrasive than green paste.
This should easily get you through the waiting period, and you can't beat the price. I would advise againts stropping on the editorial pages though, that can put too harsh an edge on anything. Good luck.