What is wrong with my stropping? VIDEO

Now I'm sure... After shaving with straight razor for a few months and after I just learned how to hone it right I discovered there is something wrong with my stropping technique. Lately I rehoned my Dovo Best Quality, I used pyramid on Norton 4k/8k starting from 15 strokes. The shave was very nice without stropping. Second shave was faaar worse (I stropped before it). From one shave to the next one it is getting worse and worse to the point I hate shaving with my straight. It's getting duller. It shaves but not close enough and it needs far too many strokes. Please look at the video and listen to the sound of my stropping. What's wrong with it? YouTube - Stropping

Hard to tell but after looking at it through a couple times it looks like you are twisting with your wrist toward the cutting edge and letting the spine come up on your down stroke.

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Originally Posted by TomSD

Hard to tell but after looking at it through a couple times it looks like you are twisting with your wrist toward the cutting edge and letting the spine come up on your down stroke.

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It does look like that to me too. If it could be run in slow motion it might be easier to see. Also it appears from my vantage point that you're not consistently going from heel to point with every stroke. Missing the point entirely on some of them. A heel leading x stroke should get it from heel to point.

Finally, the way you hold the razor lends itself to wrist turning. If you hold it as AFDavis does here in this video it gives a more natural 'flip' as opposed to turning with the wrist. I used to hold my razors the same way you do in the video.

I learned from a barber manual that holding the tang between the tip of the forefinger and the tip of the thumb, with the middle, ring and little finger supporting the scales, allowed for an ability to better control the amount of pressure applied to the edge, and to more naturally flip the razor without using the wrist. The book recommended practicing the flip without turning the wrist or doing the stroke until the action was memorized.

No expert here, but it looks like manipulating the blade with your wrist on the upstroke is putting too much force on the edge, and that (as earlier stated) you might be lifting the spine on the downstroke.

From what I've seen and learned here, a better technique is to manipulate the blade with just your thumb and first two fingers, without changing your wrist angle. That technique prevents force from being applied downward onto the strop and allows the edge to be lifted before the end of the stroke. I've been practicing this maneuver with various objects, including knives, to make stropping more delicate.

It looks to me like you need a more fluid motion as you turn the razor. Also I would keep the strop more taught. I can't tell if you are pressing down too hard-maybe?

Interesting. From my perspective your stropping is not bad enough to create the problems you are describing. There is a little too much deflection, but again, nothing that would lead to the symptoms you are describing.

The strop, though, does sound awful scratchy. I would consider cleaning the leather and working on the surface.

Did you put anything on the leather, like white paste?

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The strop, though, does sound awful scratchy. I would consider cleaning the leather and working on the surface.

Did you put anything on the leather, like white paste?

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It's Dovo strop. I didn't put paste on the strop, I just use it as it was when I got it. It does sound scratchy though. What should I do with it? How should I clean it?

You know, I'm not really sure. I assume you are stropping on the soft leather side and not the linen side, right?

One side is smooth and the other is not correct?

I think someone with experience with this strop should weigh in. I might suggest putting a small dab of oil, like olive oil, on the meaty part of your palm and rubbing it profusely for a while.

But, let's wait until we know for certain what is going on with it and what others have experienced.

Maybe you could take a close up pic of both sides of the strop?

What does it feel like when you rub your finger along the strop? Does it feel more like your skin or more like sandpaper?

I assumed the scratchiness was just him stropping on the cloth side. If not, yeah, that isn't good. :(

. . . which would be fine, unless he is not finishing on the leather before a shave.

These are always difficult questions because you don't want to offend anyone.

But, stropping exclusively on the linen side would account for the results he is acquiring.

Well, I use the soft side (with "PRIMA RINDLEDER GERMANY" imprint). The other side is more like sandpaper, I don't think I can get much use of it. The soft side is nice when I touch it.

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

. . . which would be fine, unless he is not finishing on the leather before a shave.

These are always difficult questions because you don't want to offend anyone.

But, stropping exclusively on the linen side would account for the results he is acquiring.

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Good point. It is often easy to miss/ignore the obvious when helping someone with little experience. I should know that I'm in IT... I ask on an almost daily basis "is it plugged in?", lol.

Okay, cool. That does make sense and it's a good sign. :) I'm not sure the strop should sound like that. I'm just a little suspicious.

Check to make sure the spine and the base of the bevel do not have any metal protrusions.

Rub the strop with the palm of your hand for a while before stropping on it again.

Hone up the razor and try stropping, lightly, on something else. A wallet, a flat belt, blue jeans, etc. And just see if you can get some better shaves with it that way.

Others will have some cleaning ideas soon. Saddle soap works well too. I use traditional techniques like palm (skin) oil and olive oil, but others disagree with these techniques strongly.

These strops might just sound like that.

I'll come back to technique after that, but again, your stropping doesn't look all that bad to me.

The razor is probably dulled out by now but try to hone it back up without using a pyramid. Try and do a "touch-up" instead. You'll need to get the razor back up to shaving though first, and that might take a pyramid. But, for an ordinary update don't do that. It's possible you have simply torn off a burr that gave you one good shave. Your stropping might not be that bad at all.

Ok, I will try to touch it up with 8k and strop with something else.

Probably mine strop is this one http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196040.htm ONE SIDE

I did 10 X strokes on Norton 8k side then stropped on the strop shown on the video.

The shave was slightly better, at least I could shave, but it wasn't as good as after pyramid I did previously (without stropping). After pyramid (starting from 15 strokes) the razor had more feather like sensation on my face - no resistance and it was the first time I achieved such a keen edge. Today it was more like sliding on my hair without cutting it, I had to do three passes and many strokes to have acceptable shave and the shave is still worse than 2-pass shave after pyramid without stropping. Maybe I should try to do a pyramid, then shave left side of my face, then strop and shave right side of it..? :) Now I don't know what to search for.