Thread: Stropping Pitfall for Newbies

Gents...i am waiting oh so impatiently for my shave ready 4/8's from a member of this board to arrive for my fisrt straight shave. I'm reading as much as I can and I have a philly strop on order as well. I have read and watched several videos about proper stropping techinique.

However, I continually see posts from Newbs that say they dulled their first razors with improper stropping technique. They don't general expand on what exactly they were doing wrong.

So I was hoping both newbs and mentors could chime in with some common errors that i can make sure to avoid.
Thanks,

Originally Posted by volleykinginnc

So I was hoping both newbs and mentors could chime in with some common errors that i can make sure to avoid.

Please be sure you lead the razor's spine as you strop, letting the edge follow.
Also please let the spine of the razor maintain contact on the strop throughout the stropping stroke. Turning the razor's edge into the leather is not advisable

The last few pages of this 1961 barber manual excerpt here are devoted to proper stropping. Some good tips in there. Particularly to practice flipping the razor between thumb and the tip of the forefinger before you begin trying the stroke.

When I started straight shaving I tended to put too much pressure on the spine as I stropped. I have quite good coordination, so I avoided the usual strop-nicking issues, but I'm sure the pressure use was detrimental to the edges on my razors.

One of my main pitfalls was not ignoring the urge to test the edges.

I destroyed the edge on one razor by doing the TNT ------ not recommended for shave-ready straights.

I dulled a couple razors when I started in April of this year. I learned two words that help: Tight and Light

Tight: Keep the strop pulled tight. It shouldn't bounce more than about a half-inch as you strop.

Light: don't press the razor into the strop. Just keep it in even, constant contact as you lead with the spine of the razor. No more downward pressure than needed to insure consistent contact.

Maybe also I'd add that until you know you're stropping correctly, don't get into the routine of 100 laps! Give it 20 and see how the shave feels. If it's good, stay at 20.

We newbies want to be "doing." Honing stropping whatever. We have to restrain our zeal!

Originally Posted by LawsonStone

I dulled a couple razors when I started in April of this year. I learned two words that help: Tight and Light

Tight: Keep the strop pulled tight. It shouldn't bounce more than about a half-inch as you strop.

Light: don't press the razor into the strop. Just keep it in even, constant contact as you lead with the spine of the razor. No more downward pressure than needed to insure consistent contact.

Maybe also I'd add that until you know you're stropping correctly, don't get into the routine of 100 laps! Give it 20 and see how the shave feels. If it's good, stay at 20.

We newbies want to be "doing." Honing stropping whatever. We have to restrain our zeal!

well said Lawson...that last sentence is really good, thanks.

You'll probably do quite a bit of damage initially simply by trying to use too much speed while stropping. For the average beginner and the average length of strop I would expect decent results following a mantra of "one thousand one, one thousand two, etc." So that a single pass down the strop would occur no faster than the time frame required to say "one thousand one". That slow a speed is counter-intuitive, but should help prevent problems.

One point that always alluded me initially was understanding that the razor was already sharp. I kept thinking that stropping was a magic act that somehow burnished the edge into a wicked keen shaving edge. And although this might be true in the very long run, initially I think you are only cleaning off the edge of the typical oxidation that builds as the razor sits and gets used, like a regular blade.

Learning to strop cartridge blades and learning that I did not need to strop straight razors modified my thoughts on what the objective was. Once it occurs to you that there may not really be an objective with stropping (per session) then you can relax about what your stropping is actually doing. When that happens you'll stop screwing up the edge by stropping by the very nature that you are no longer trying to accomplish anything in particular.

I agree about not letting the strop sag, but be careful about taking the "tight" strop idea too literally. Notice the above poster did mention a deflective amount in the strop while stropping. There is a big difference between the sourced and documented statement that "the strop should not sag" and the idea that the strop should be held "tight".