Strop challenged

So I think I may have stropped my razor the right way for the first time ever. And I've been doing this for a few months. Has anyone else experienced this total lack of aptitude for stropping?
I mean, I get this nice TI and after figuring out how not to destroy my face with massive pressure, I find that I just don't think the thing is sharp. I send it out to get honed. Clearly the first post hone shave was amazing. And now, three weeks later its tugging a lot. So Reevaluate my stropping technique and I find that I think i might just simply suck at stropping. I have no idea how I could be so bad at it. But I'm pretty sure I am.

three days ago with an empty apartment and nothing to do all day I indulge in one of those hour long shave experiences. I started with a kettle of boiling water which I used to make coffee and use the excess water for soaking the brush while I shower. (the coffee stays in a insulated mug so it stays hot for hours. And I'm a bit of a coffee addict. Asado Coffee from Chicago if you want to know=excellent) I strop 30-40 linen and 50-60 leather. Then I shower. After a nice long shower I prep the face with oil and then Truefit and Hill sandlawood cream. The shave was...uninspired. Felt like I was fighting with my beard.

the next day I repeat the entire process. But I noticed the strop and blade interacted in a way I never really experienced before. The shave was...inspired. Perfect. A joy.

Today however it seems my stopping touch has left.

Anyone else experience this type of stropping issues?

Cheers

Be sure to note as you go along, keeping track of the little things you do differently. It may be simply an angle issue.

sorry to be so dense, but do you mean angle of the razor while stropping or the angle of the razor while I shave?

I think he is referring to your shaving angle because when you are stropping, the blade should be flat against the strop.

Yeah I figured. I was curious though, I find that when I strop my blade is flat against the strop but it travels up the leather with a sort of heel first angle. Sometimes. Not sure if that matters or not.

cenzo, search for any members in your area. You might get lucky and have someone close by who you can meet with and show you how it's done or answer any questions you may have. Hang in there you'll get it

You might want to go on YouTube and check out a guy names geofatboy. He has a video dedicated solely to stropping. Might help.

I found that when I started to apply much less pressure when stropping, the shaving quality of the blade seemed to improve. Now I do it very lightly, enough pressure to keep the razor in touch with the leather and making a little swishing noise when it moves against the strop, but not too much pressure. I found the shaves have improved a lot.

Before shaving I do fifty on the leather. After each shave I do 30-50 on the canvas, then 100 on the leather. I'm lucky in that I've had only one bad nick on my strop.

Some good advice is to do laps slowly while you are gaining experience. Count one one-thousand per lap was the advice given me to me by an expert. It'll probably be months before I develop any amount of speed and the confidence as well. Thumb-notched razors don't help here either. ;)

Have you rubbed the palm of your hand up and down the leather strop? The oil from your palm/skin/hand is a good conditioner for the leather.

Just an extra thought here, it would be good for you to check the edge to see if it is not rolled. You need to have the razor setting on its spine and you use a loupe or other strong magnification and strong light to look right down on the edge and slowly "rock" the razor back and forth on the spine to look for bright spots on the edge. The bright spots will twinkle. If you have those bright spots, or one long bright spot, then your razor will need to be rehoned. If you can look right down on the edge and and rock the razor and do not see any bright spots, your edge is fine. Get the idea?

There's a lot of good footage & advice in some of the stropping videos at SRP that you could check out. Lots of helpful tips.

Stropping is not an easy skill to pick up. It can take years to master it, and sometimes many months to simply get the mechanics down. And during that time you will have good days and bad days - moments where everything seems to suddenly click followed by less than stellar experiences. It's all part of the process and nothing to worry about.

The only real way to improve is to practice, and to practice proper technique. So I would suggest you take some of the excellent advice offered here and find any stropping video you can get your hands on by AFDavis - I believe one of his videos is stickied in the Stropping forum. Study that carefully, and then slowly and deliberately, and at every opportunity, practice on your strop. Speed is unimportant and develops over time in a natural way - never force it, just let your arm and fingers find their own comfort zone and work within that all the time.

There are no shortcuts, but you can certainly make obtaining proficiency and muscle memory just that bit faster with consistent, committed, and regular practice. The reward, of course, is that you should see improvements in your shave. Just to give you an idea, I used to practice stropping at least 5 times a day for several minutes each time - not a lot when you think about it. Even now, I will often just go grab a razor and for the fun of it run it over the strop for a few minutes.

Good luck!

James.