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I've had my Straight Razor Designs strop for less than a week and I nicked it tonight. I was trying to be careful and as soon as I touched it I hesitated and let the razor go back just a few millimeters, but it was enough to put a small gouge in the leather. It's at the bottom of the strop, so I can easily avoid it, but it's always going to serve as a reminder to keep my mind focused.
It was a beautiful strop. :(
The way I see it, ifyour strop doesn't have any nicks in it, you aren't shaving enough.
I agree, you need to get in there and develope your skills and that means the odd failure here and there, we've all done it[except Lynn A., of course] and it's the way we eventually get good at something, just get yourself some rubber cement[I use contact, but that's another story] repair the nick, the WIKI section of SRP will help with that, and keep going, when you start to feel more confident about your stropping techneques you can always but another piece of leather from SRD and replace it, knowing at that point your nicks will be much fewer and farther between!! That's just the way I see it, others will chime in no doubt.
Have a great Day and a BBS to boot!!
tinkersd of SRP!
McNutt,
It is part of the right-of-passage for straight shavers; the nicks give the strop 'character' :)
Have fun !
Best regards
Russ
Lol I did the same thing on my first (proper) strop and I have only had the new strop a week. The nick is in the bottom of the strop so like yours easy to avoid, I guess its just one of those things.
I nicked my strop the first day I had it! In more than one place even. Ugh! I'm so glad I took everyone's advice and started with an inexpensive option. I have since learned to slow down. Contact cement and some light sandpaper repaired the strop to its original condition - worked far better than I expected. After applying oil to the strop, I can hardly tell where the nicks are. Definitely +1 on the contact cement solution - if only there was an equally effective solution to repairing nicks on the face. :-)
My first strop looked like it was caught in the lawn mower. I must finally be getting the hang of it. My SRD strop is still nick free.
I agree with every one here. If your strop looks perfect, it ain't being used enough! I too nicked mine shortly after it arrived (I posted my HORRID, OBSCENE stropping technique in one of my posts), and at first I was bummed.
But it's not going to hurt anything, and frankly, it adds character! It's a strop that says, "That's right. I've been around the block or two, and I keep on stropping! What you gonna do about it?" And all the other smooth, brand new strops shiver in fear.
i actually just did a repair job on my strop about a week ago. it's my first strop (an Illinois #127) and it had probably about 4-5 nicks in it. i picked up some sand paper from home depot, pretty sure it was 400 grit - it was the second smoothest grit that they had, and i used really light pressure to sand out the nicks very gradually. it worked great! didn't need to use any contact cement. i actually think my strop looks even better now that it looks like it's seen some hard times haha.
The next strop I get, the first thing I'll do is take a sharp razor and nick it on purpose, then move on.
:rofl2: That's the way I see, why worry, just get back into the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyCakeDC
I believe that all new strops will get nicked at least once, especially if the user does not have decades of experience. Consider it a fact of life, deal with it accordingly, and then move on... just another 'notch in your belt' ;) that you chalk up to experience.
Lets face it, if a strop was any good it would come with a factory nick so you wouldnt have to do it yourself.
All my strops are nicked, but I fixed them allwith rubber cement, it's cheap and flexable. Somehow it gets in the leather and bonds with it quite well.
I practice on a pair of blue jeans. I tore the heck out of first strop good thing I only paid $20.00 for my Philly.