Thread: My Personal Stropping Progress

This is a YMMV topic, for sure, but I thought I’d share my experiences nonetheless …….


I happen to be fortunate enough to live near AFDavis11 and was able to attend one of his gatherings last month. The tips and techniques I picked up during this meeting have proved very helpful. I thought I’d outline four specific items that I put into practice that greatly improved my stropping proficiency:

1/ Strop Oil – I came to the meeting with questions concerning how to properly dress a strop I had made (and how to optimize its draw). I learned that you don’t need a space age strop dressing. Regular ‘ol olive oil does the trick in many instances. As such I gave my DIY strop an application and it seems to be working perfectly. To my untrained hand, the strop appears to have more draw than it did previously.

2/ X Pattern – I learned the importance of gaining experience with the X pattern. Even though my DIY strop was 3” wide, for the past month I have purposely been using an X pattern or half-moon pattern. In the process, I became so convinced of the benefits of the X pattern, that I cut my strop down to 2” – an example of where less may be more??

3/ Strop Tension – Most beginners are advised to keep their strops taut. Prior to the meeting, therefore, I stropped on a virtual tightrope. During the meeting, I learned that a little slack is beneficial. Accordingly, I’ve slightly (emphasize slightly) loosened my stropping tension.

4/ Strop Pressure – In the beginning, I followed the common advice to strop with very light pressure. During the gathering, however, I was encouraged to apply a bit more pressure. Subsequently, I’ve purposely been applying pressure when I strop – only a little, but significantly more than the “weight of the razor only” advice advocated by some. (I try not to apply too much pressure given that I no longer strop with a perfectly taut strop – slack and pressure are a potentially dangerous combination – but I seem to have found the perfect balance.)

The result? Simply put, these four modifications were game changers for me.

Prior to the meeting I was having trouble keeping my razors perfectly sharp – my razors just simply would not stay as sharp as they were when first purchased or honed. My stropping technique was unable to preserve a perfect edge for more than a handful of shaves. Since implementing the above changes, my stropping proficiency has improved dramatically. For the past month my shaves have been the closest, smoothest, and most comfortable yet. I’m sure some of the enhancement can be attributed to technique improvement that naturally comes with practice, but I think the above four changes played a pivotal role in improving my stropping competence and therefore my overall shaving enjoyment.

Thanks for reading. And THANK YOU, Alan, for all the helpful tips!

I agree on all counts, mostly because I was lucky enough to visit with, and learn from, Alan too. It was a game-changer for me as well. Time well spent!

Originally Posted by diyguy

but I seem to have found the perfect balance.

You nailed it!

Thanks for a great post!

I have done my share of testing on this as well.
To be honest, stropping was what took the longest for me to be able to take to an acceptable level.
A lot of experimenting was needed for me to be able to strop in a way I was content with.

I fully understand the advice given on this site about little to none pressure and all that, I have been giving it myself.
Having seen what too much of it can do to an edge, it's a sound advice. The thing is, there is, in my stropping, a slight bit of pressure, but telling that to a new one at this will often kill the edge due to too much of a good thing.

It's hard to explain, in text, what the proper correlation between tautness and pressure should be.
I finally found the correct amount of pressure when stropping with a big mirror by my side. I learned that I was actually using too much pressure, although I could have sworn I was using only the weight of the razor.

I think I must have spent at least 6 months of practicing before my stropping was adequate, even longer to make it good.

A meeting like the one you describe, is really a very good thing.
All that are new to this should really attend one or two gatherings if at all possible, it sure is shortening the learning curve, to be able to see this first hand!

Anyways, just my $0.02.

It's been something I've been struggling with - and doing a pretty good job of putting tiny nicks at both ends of the strop. I saw a video the other day where the presenter took his strop off the hook and layed it on a towel flat on the edge of a counter. He advocated doing it this way for a month or two to get the X motion down. I've been trying it for a couple of days and it seems to work for me. Not getting quite the nicks in the strop and getting my X pattern down a lot easier.

You can also lay your strop in front of you so it is perpendicular to the edge of the table and strop to and fro like can be done on a hanging strop. Doing this or using a paddle strop eliminates a bunch of variables that can be added in later if you choose to, variables like pressure, tautness of the strop, etc. You may find it helpful to lay the strop on a big book and even weight it down at the ends. I even had some success with rubber bands although that looked a tad mickey mouse.

Thanks for sharing! I always tell people I was more nervous about my first strop than I was my first shave lol. I haven't jacked my edge up as of yet, but I'm a slooooow stropper too. One question though.......do you have to oil the strop or not?

The stropping thing is something you sort of pick up as you go. When I started, I too held my strop taut. After a while, it just seemed to make sense to loosen it up.
If you have some slack in your strop, your blade will make better contact with it. That's the key right there. Contact....Once you've been doing it for a while, It will be a smooth fluid motion. As far a cutting a 3 inch strop into a 2 inch...Well, I don't think I'd go that far, I'd probably buy a smaller one, and keep the larger...I primarily use a 3 inch strop. I like it better. I no longer do the x pattern while I strop, and my results are fine.

Strop Dressing: This is another thing I never do. I imagine if I had an old, or maybe an inexpensive strop I'd do it. I like the draw off my strops, the way they are. They need nothing. SRD's Premium 1, and English Bridle are my go to strops. They are fantastic just the way they are. They need nothing more than the occasional hand rub. I also like Tony Miller's Horsehide. It has little or no draw, and is also great the way it is....But to each his own. I know many members like oiling up their strops, and they feel it gives them a better edge, than go for it. As the OP said, YMMV....But No, you don't need to oil your strops. It's personal preference.

Makes sense. That would explain why I seen just as many oil strop posts as non oil strop posts.

Thanks for a great post. A lot of good info in there for guys who are trying to figure this out. I spent an intense stropping session with my razors last night and will see this evening if it paid off. I know it's an improvement on what I've been doing but it seemed like I found that sweet spot last night. Tonight will be verification that it wasn't just being high on cold meds!

On the oil issue; it seems like it's only needed for old/dry strops. Mine are both and Neats Foot made a world of difference. Haven't tried Olive Oil, but it's an interesting idea.

I had all the struggles the OP had, but found more success hanging the strop than laying it flat. What helped me with holding it too tight was this: Hold it just tight enough that the strop does not sag. It just comes level. Of course this requires that you hang the strop from a point where you can pull it level. Too high or too low and you can still get there, but it's not as obvious. If you get it just level it's taut.

The other help for me was watching one of Hi_Bud_GL's vids. His was the only one that was at such an angle (and that I could trust as being a guy who knows what he's doing) that showed pressure in any way. Holding the strop so it was taut, the razor pushed the strop down 1/2" to 1" at the most...about 1-2cm for you metric guys...as it moved through the stroke. This was the only correlation for pressure that I'd found from a reliable source that I could emulate myself. Since then my stropping's improved.

Last tip: I moved my body so that the strop was pulled left to right in front of me instead of straight out from me. This allowed me to stroke so that the edge of the blade touched the strop on the way back to my hand. And it helped me get a natural arc in my stroke which is a good thing on a 2.5" strop.

Best of luck to everyone!

Thanks for the responses everyone. If I had a time machine and could repeat the last month, I'd try #2, #3, and #4 alone to start with. My hypothesis is that the oil was a relatively small contributor to my improvement.

As a follow-up, I recently acquired a two component strop and my findings are inconclusive relative to the second component yet. I’m still evaluating what the right tautness/pressure equation is for the linen side. My experience thus far is telling me that the formula is in fact different from the leather side. I’d be curious what the veterans think on this matter.