Thread: Help with Stropping

ShoreBird,

+1 on Shams' stropping video.

This video helped me get out of a vicious-circle I was developing with my stropping; the worse it got, the more anxious I became, the worse it got.

I even gave up shaving with a straight for two weeks, until Sham published his video and I got some personal advice from Mr Neil Miller.

All was sweetness and light after that

On a side note, I now use paddle strops almost exclusively for my daily stropping

Good luck !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

I'll check out the video tonight. I'm having the same mental block, it appears to be such a simple thing. Anyway I have a paddle strop coming in. Until then I'll practice with a bread knife.Thanks for your help.

I tore up my first strop trying to learn. The key here is to go SLOWWWW.

Keep the spine on the strop at all times. The timing of the flip is what is really important. Just before you get to the end of the stroke in either direction, lift the edge of the blade, flip, and do not set the edge back down onto the strop until you are already on the stroke in the other direction. If you don't, what happens is when you try and stop the razor to get ready for the flip, you will ever so slightly jerk the blade as you try and stop it and the edge is still in cutting position on the strop. Or, if you flip the blade and you are still moving and lay the edge down, you are in cutting position also. Both of these are a guarantee for strop nicking.

Do this slowly and deliberately until your muscle memory can do it without think about it - probably 2 weeks. Then slowly speed up.

You guys have been great. I'm going to practice tonight. I want to practice before I try it on one of my shaving razors.

I just watch the video again. The guy does not mention the flip timing, but he is certainly doing it. I can see him lift the edge ever so slightly before he ends his stroke and he is ever so slightly in the reverse direction before he edge is fully contacting the strop.

The hand position made all the difference in the world.