Thread: stropping technique

I'm relatively new to straight razor shaving, I've been at it for about a week now, and I just now found this site. I've been scouring this place all day and decided it was about time for me to join.

Anyway, I took a look at Lynn's shaving video and noticed that he doesn't keep the strop pulled tight when he's stropping. Every source I've found online says to try to keep as flat a surface as possible by pulling tight on the strop, so now every piece of knowledge I've managed to aquire has been knocked off balance. Can anyone help clarify the "hanging strop" stropping process?

Also, I think I may have fallen for an ebay trap when buying my strop. It seems a little warped and has some minor flaws in the leather at the top end. The leather reminds me of a weightlifting belt, only the surface isn't all shiny, it's almost like a crude suede. It came with a free Pakistani "Two Golden Man" straight *ahem* "razor," if that tells you anything. My guess is I'm out 20 bucks and should start browsing through Tony's selection.

Nice to have you around.

First of all I hope you're not shaving with a Pakistani razor. If you are you will need more than just another strop. You'll need a real razor.

I can't speak to the strop you have, but it does NOT have a good pedigree nor does it sound like a good finisher based on your description. You can try conditioning it and rubbing it flat, but getting a hanging strop from Tony is never a bad idea in my book.

I think Lynn is holding the strop taut. The bowing you see is the natural springing action which is beneficial to getting a good draw on the leather without a stiff surface which can damage the razor's edge. If he were holding it loose, I think it would bow lot more than that.

X

Keep the strop taught and use a light touch. With experience you can allow the strop to sag some, and with an expert hand, strop perfectly. This technique is better left to the well practiced though.

If you spend enough time thinking about it (and its hardly worth the effort), the actual angle which the edge touches against a strop is negliglible as long as the razor is FLAT against the strop, even with some bowing. The slightest spine lifting though and blam!, no more edge. In the advanced maintenance of an edge though this technique can be helpful, used sparingly.

This technique is also used sometimes to get maximum action on the edge against the strop, again better left to experts. I do it on occasion and it works just fine, technique must be perfect though.

Now, if he applies the slightest amount of pressure at any spot in the process he would roll the edge over. But, he won't, and he knows better.

For the average person a light touch is recommended and if needed a dab of pressure can be added to attain a drawing sensation which is indicative of proper stropping, with a well honed razor. But, unless the strop is held taught you'll roll the edge when using a dab of pressure (even just a dab).

As the edge dulls you'll get less draw and you can add more pressure in order to strop without additional honing, BUT, chasing a dull edge with strop pressure isn't such a brilliant idea (better to consider rehoning at some point). The strop MUST be taught if your going to use any pressure!

So there are two options which work well. Taught with light pressure, and the error factor applying pressure is pretty varied, or with a loose sagging strop and a feather light touch only, which has a very small margin of technical and pressure error, but it can be done.

This should only give you peace of mind that if you use a feather light touch you can get away with a slight sag and shouldn't break the edge.

One other factor that plays into the equation is honing ability. The better the bevel and the finer the edge the less pressure is needed. In Lynn's case he not only has no fear of rolling the edge but likely creates a superb bevel and edge every time. Thus the razor will strop easily and effectively.

Again, two options: Light touch with a taught strop, and feather light touch with a sagging strop (but which is not recommended for even the semi-expert level). Once you learn how to hone well though give it a try, with a feather light touch it works pretty well. But you must keep the edge very flat and maintain a feather light touch.

Better for now though keeping the strop taught, regardless of the pressure you use.

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.

That's all good advice, and the only thing I might add besides going slow--being a newbie myself--is to force patience. It's really easy to start slow and careful, but it's easier to lose patience and feel like you can speed things up. I've also learned the hard way that I need to strop with no distractions. If you're counting one-one, two-two, you'll lose track if the radio's on, your wife wants to talk, your son wants to play, or the cat wants food. Dogs, though, generally just watch quietly.

Dan

Welcome to the forum and the insane world
of the straight razor.

You gotten a lot of excellent advise here.
I can definately recommend Tony's strops.
They are of exceptional quailty and come
at a reasonable price. I believe that is
is on vacation through the endof the week.
So if you don't receive a speedy reply that
is why.



Terry

wow, two pages of posts overnight!

I only tried shaving with the Pakistani blade once, thankfully it was so dull it couldn't even cut me. I still had a full beard when I finished, but I guess it was good for a first try just so I could get used to holding a straight blade properly without shredding anything vital. After a quick google search on Pakistani blades, I confirmed what I had suspected: it's just a worthless blade.

So after several hours browsing around, I concluded that the best brands out there are Dovo, Thiers-Issard, and Colonel Conk. Colonel Conk razors were all over 100 bucks or so, and when you're looking for a manly blade, you generally don't think of the French, so that left Dovo. I went over to Classic Shaving and bought a $60 5/8 Dovo, I can't remember what they called it and it doesn't seem to be on the site anymore. I'm on a pretty bad internet connection for the next day or two so that might be it...

Anyway, I've been stropping using the tight and light-to-no pressure technique, which if I had a decent strop, should work just fine.

So far, I haven't had any major wounds; just some mild skin irritation the first time and a nick every once in a while. I guess I'm just a natural. I'm still trying to work out a technique for the chin though. It might be that my blade isn't quite sharp enough, since my strop is worthless and I have yet to see it pass the hanging hair test.

I don't seem to see much talk about the Colonel Conk brand around here, from my own browsing I thought they were a respectable brand. I bought their surgical Arkansas whetstone for honing, because it was only around $20, as opposed to like $60+ for a Norton. Hopefully I wasn't scammed there too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/st...html?s=cc110rs

I've pretty much got the honing movement down by practicing with my Pakistani butter knife on an old hunting knife whetstone. I think it would be best to not use the Pakistani on my razor whetstone, just doesn't seem right. So, I guess the Pakistani has a purpose afterall.

I guess that's all I have to share at the moment.

Unless you opted for classics honing service the Dovo
while a good razor will not be shave ready.

As for razors, there are a lot of vintage razors out
there at a very good price and you can buy them
from members of this forum.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/compo...per/Itemid,33/


This link is under the Vendors Corner.

Lynn, Bill, Joe and Tony all sell shave ready razors. Tony also
sells strops. I can recommend all 4 of these guys.

As far as Col. Conk razors - I would guess that they are made
by Dovo, but not positive.

If the Dovo is not shave ready I would recommend that you
contact either Lynn or Joe about getting this done. It's
imprtant to start out with a shave ready razor as it will
give you a benchmark as to what the term means.

I wish you success.....


Terry

The Col. Conk hone is great, but is too low a grit. You'll need another hone.

k, this is getting really annoying. My strop is no good, my hone isn't good enough, and while I'm at it, I ended up with a boar hair brush... Why must people make this difficult for me? The only good product I've bought so far was the Dovo razor, and it needs sharpening...

Now why, would a reputable straight razor company make a hone for razors that is too low of a grit to be effective? I can almost understand with the jerk on ebay with the fake strop, because that's what people on ebay do, but the Col. Conk stone... that hurts...

Anyone want to trade equipment?