Thread: stropping technique

The perfect may be the enemy of the good in this case. The pak razors suck bad, that's for sure, and your strop doesn't look too good either. It's unfortunate that the pak stuf is polluting the straight razor market.

The arkansas stone will work, it's just not optimal. It's a coarse (~1k grit) hone that also sharpens very slowly, but because it's such a slow cutter the coarse grit doesn't hurt the edge as much as you'd think. Just keep a light touch once the edge starts getting sharp (which will make it sharpen even slower). If it works for you then don't worry about it.

If the boar brush generates a good lather and isn't shedding hairs like mad then it's a fine brush and will serve you well. I've got a proraso (omega) brush that is better than several badger brushes I've owned.

If you decide to get a better hone then there are a lot of barber's hones on ebay for about the same price as that arkansas stone - there's no need to go all the way to a norton. That said, the norton is a fantastic hone, it has a fine grit and sharpens very quickly.

Well, the boar brush is just fine, thats what I use every day.
The Col Conk hone will be useful when you need to remove nicks or re-establish the bevel so hang on to it( the grit is about 1200). The Dovo razors does need to be honed and since you do not have either the proper hones or the skill to hone it yourself then send this one out to one of the guys mentioned. Then you will know what shaving sharp means and you will have a standard for future reference. For a hone you will need a 4000 grit and an 8000 grit at a minimum. That can be satisfied with a 3" wide Norton 4/8K or a set of Barber hones from Tilly(redtrader99@fastmail.fm or www.redtrader99.com). Other options are Japanese waterstones or new ceramic hones from Spyderco.
You might consider obtaing a couple more razors to practice honing on.

Please, check with us before you decide to buy anything else. We will be more than happy to help you with any questions.

Thanks for the information guys, I'll have to see if I can get the Conk to work good, otherwise I think the old barber hones from Tilly seems like a nice route to take. What should I look for in a barber hone that would compliment the stone I already have?

I have a friend who goes to a barber who still uses straight blades, and it's about time for me to get a haircut so I'll see if I can get him to put a good edge on my Dovo while I'm there. If I'm lucky, he might have an old razor or a hone he would be willing to sell.

Originally Posted by brandonamito

... I have a friend who goes to a barber who still uses straight blades, and it's about time for me to get a haircut so I'll see if I can get him to put a good edge on my Dovo while I'm there. If I'm lucky, he might have an old razor or a hone he would be willing to sell.

That's super. I'd love to hear what happens on that front.

X

Originally Posted by 1adam12

I have only been SE shaving about two months now, but I can definately share what I learned about stropping the hard way. I dulled out my razor a few times until I got the kinks worked out.

Hold the strop taught. Do not try to play with sagging, be safe and save yourself the frustration. Hold the razor flat with no pressure even though the urge is there to do so. Go slow. Very slow. Speed means nothing, it just looks cool. Here is the key that really made the difference for me. Most stropping videos I have seen do not show it because they are going so fast. When you roll the razor between your fingers make absolutely sure at the end of the stroke to roll it on the SPINE not the BLADE. In other words when you are on the stroke moving away from yourself; at the end roll the razor AWAY from yourslef. On the return stroke roll the tazor TWARD yourslef. This will prevent you from folding over the edge when you roll the razor over.

Good luck and hang in there it only gets better. You will be so proud of yourself once you complete that first really smooth shave; you will forget all about the 20$ you blew on a bad strop from Pakistan.

Ya in a few months when you have started to spent a few hundred on razors that you just HAD to have...the $20.00 will be chump change in comparrison!! BTW I stropped for about two weeks on a belt I wore daily when my strop was stolen from a hotel room. I didnt get the best shaves, but they were still pretty damn good, so you will probably be ok. I would advise that you talk to Tony Miller when he comes back from vacation and see if you can get yourself a new good quality strop if the one you have isnt working out for you.

ok, I'm looking at a lithide barber hone from Tilly right now. It's relatively cheap, and it seems like it would get the job done to me. I did a search on the forums for lithide and didn't find anything. Any comments?

oh, oops, I did a search on the main website, not the forums. Well, it looks like the lithide is good. I guess I'll treat my Conk as a medium stone and then get a lithide for a fine stone. Unless anyone has an objection before I plop down more money into this thing.

Thats how I hone now, using the Conk and a barber hone. Lithides are a little spotty on whether people really like them or not. While your at Tilly (Redtrader99) site I would browse and get two barber hones. Usually if you buy two there will be one you love and one you so so about.

http://www.redtrader99.com/index.html