Quote Originally Posted by Rightwinger View Post
My new Razor and strop just arrived today and I am really stoked about it. I do have a few questions that I am hoping to get answered before I dive into my first SR shave.

1. The 3 inch strop I have has a canvas strop and a Leather strop on it. What is the canvas for and what situation calls for canvas stropping over leather?
Most people use the canvas before the leather. 20 on the canvas, 50 on the leather, or something near that.

2. The leather strop has 2 sides of leather, one smoother side that has the SRD logo, and one rougher side, what side am I suppose to use?
Smooth side.

3. when stropping do you always have the blade trailing the direction you are traveling? Is the blade to be held perfectly flat or at a slight angle?
Blade always trails the spine when stropping. You should also lift the edge off before the end of the stroke. Instead of think of a stroke > stop > flip > stroke > stop > flip, try to think of the stroke as beginning and ending with only the spine on the strop and the edge pointing up, and you lay the edge down as you start the stroke and pick it up before the stroke is over.

4. Other than canned shaving cream, I don't have any good lather, is there a quick recipe for a homeade lather that works untill I can order some?
I think any glycerin based soap will work better than the canned stuff. KissMyFace has a nice shaving soap that is available in most natural food stores.