Thread: Practice Stropping with a Really Dull Razor...

In an effort to perfect my stropping technique, I bought an old straight razor from an antique shop with the idea of using it for practice while saving my beautiful, sharp Dovo for the real thing.

The blade on the antique razor is dull, and I mean, really, really dull. Butter knife dull is still too sharp to describe how dull this thing really is. Is stropping with such a device bad for the strop? Will it affect the strop in such a way that when I take the Dovo to it, I could actually damage or dull my shaving blade? Or will it, could it, adversely affect my technique? Kind of like practicing basketball with a women's ball before playing the game with a men's ball -- that type of thing?

Also, in the case of my Dovo, I test it prior to shaving by running it over the hair on my thigh to see how cleanly it cuts. I've read in this forum that other people do this to test the blade as well. Other than actually cutting the hair, is there something else I should be looking for? Like a sensation or a visual cue that the blade is sharp?

Many thanks to all the people on this website for their support. I can't imagine how a novice straight razor shaver did it prior to the internet!!!

IMO as long as there are no divots in the edge that would scratch the finish on your top grain of the strop it won't hurt anything. Once you know your Dovo, or whatever, is shaving sharp you needn't test it with anything but the shave. Just IMHO.

It depends on the edge on that razor. If the edge is pitted (rusted) has nicks in it, or otherwise damaged, then, yes, it can damage the strop and I would advise against using it. If not, then no harm should come to your strop. Don't try to sharpen it on the strop, just work on technique...

Nope - not bad at all. In fact probably a good choice for you.

I really tore up a nice SRD 3" latigo strop while learning to strop. A lot of people do. That is why we say "don't fall in love with your first strop". So a dull razor is a good idea. Also helps prevent you from damaging your new razor.

Ok, so here are a couple of things that others have helped me with here that will be beneficial. First, take a piece of printer type paper and fold it into a 1" wide x 8 1/2" long strip. Practice stropping with that. When you can do it without bending the paper strip, that is about the right amount of pressure to use while stropping.

Next is your timing on the flip. You will ruin a strop faster with poor flip timing than you can imagine. Here is what you have to do, and this works for the stroke in either direction. Keep the spine on the strop at all times, including through the flip. So just BEFORE you get to the end of the stroke, lift the edge, but not the spine, flip as you reverse direction, but do not lay the edge down until you start moving in the reverse direction. Do this slowly and deliberately. It may take several weeks to develop the muscle memory to do this smoothly.

If not here is what happens. When you get to the end of the stroke, you try and stop the razor's motion. The little jerk you do to stop it puts the edge right into the strop and you nick it. If the edge is down as soon as you do the flip, you might not have stopped moving in the direction of the previous stroke and that also puts the edge right into the strop and you nick it. Do this for 50 strokes and you have hamburger.

Good luck with this - it is an extremely important part of the process.

Originally Posted by dward

It depends on the edge on that razor. If the edge is pitted (rusted) has nicks in it, or otherwise damaged, then, yes, it can damage the strop and I would advise against using it. If not, then no harm should come to your strop. Don't try to sharpen it on the strop, just work on technique...

Yeah - you are right. If the razor is in bad shape it can damage the strop. I should have mentioned that.