Thread: Short hairs remain

Originally Posted by Majestic

Just had an idea. Could this be caused by not moving the entire blade of the razor over the strop? My strop is, I think, about 2 inches wide, and I have trouble when drawing the razor towards myself covering the length of the edge (not so much when drawing it away from me).

A x-pattern is required when using strops less than 3" wide, so yes it is very possible that you are not stropping the entire edge if you are going straight up and down.

While sharpness/stropping could be a culprit I'd bet this is still a technique issue....

Which is okay. I know how skills like this are learned. I put about two years into traditional drawing/painting. The process is similar (although I don't remember risking injury when painting). Draw/paint a vase, draw/paint a vase, draw/paint a vase. Maybe after 100 you start doing two vases. Then more items. Then portraits, etc.

I usually do two "with the grain" passes, and I'll still have some of those short, light hairs that won't be removed until an "across the grain" pass. Some of those suckers just seem to need to be attacked from a different angle.