Thread: 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?