Thread: Why are my shaves only getting worse?

If your razor keeps getting duller and duller, that means it's your stropping technique. Keep the strop as flat as you can, and use very light pressure with the razor. Make sure you aren't lifting the spine.

It might be the "poor man's strop". When I originally purchased all my shaving gear, about 7 years ago, I spent the big bucks on a high quality strop. To me that made the most logical sense when it came to expenses for straight razor shaving.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

It might be the "poor man's strop". When I originally purchased all my shaving gear, about 7 years ago, I spent the big bucks on a high quality strop. To me that made the most logical sense when it came to expenses for straight razor shaving.

"Stropping is King"

It sounds to me like you have degraded a quality edge with a substandard strop and, to compensate for declining keenness, started to press harder. If that's even close to what happened you should back up and revisit your strop and stropping technique.

You might think that it's too early to have the razor honed, and you may be right, but it's time to do something with it. If not re-honing, then a touch up with a finishing hone or a pasted/sprayed strop will be in order. Which brings you back to stropping.....

One of the most baffling recommendations I see is for people to get a cheap, "beginner" strop. I'm with Alan 100% on this one.

Originally Posted by richmondesi

One of the most baffling recommendations I see is for people to get a cheap, "beginner" strop. I'm with Alan 100% on this one.

While I may agree with the ideology, we must remember that beginners may not have the most solid stropping technique (such as deflecting the strop at the edge rather than the spine) and may even wind up damaging the strop with a too-sudden stop or some other n00b mistake. Better to bugger up a $30 strop and move to a better strop when the issues have all been ironed out. I know that had I made some of my early errors in a beautiful $100 strop, I'd be ready to barf. However, now that I've got a decent handle on technique, it is time to consider upgrading to some English bridle leather.

Originally Posted by SonOf1337

While I may agree with the ideology, we must remember that beginners may not have the most solid stropping technique (such as deflecting the strop at the edge rather than the spine) and may even wind up damaging the strop with a too-sudden stop or some other n00b mistake. Better to bugger up a $30 strop and move to a better strop when the issues have all been ironed out. I know that had I made some of my early errors in a beautiful $100 strop, I'd be ready to barf. However, now that I've got a decent handle on technique, it is time to consider upgrading to some English bridle leather.

I've heard that line of reasoning a lot, and I still don't agree with it

If you buy a cheap strop, say the $30 one from your example, and then you decide to buy a $100 one once your technique improves, your total investment is $130

Now, instead, you buy a better quality $100 strop to begin with. After you replace the leather component for $50, you're looking at a total investment of $150... To me, it's worth the extra $20 for a significantly better product.

When someone introduces a really high quality strop for $20-$30 bucks, I'll be all over it, but as it stands now, I'd rather buy the nice strop first

Originally Posted by richmondesi

One of the most baffling recommendations I see is for people to get a cheap, "beginner" strop. I'm with Alan 100% on this one.

+1 not cheap.

Inexpensive is OK, cheap is not.
One of the sponsors has a top of the line
strop and also sells replacement leather and canvas
for a very reasonable price.

Since a strop is used each day for each shave
this is the one item to not go cheap on.


If the budget is tight and you can hand pick leather at
the likes of Tandy leather go for it if you have a good eye.