Thread: Stropping - Which side do I use?

I'm very new to straight razor shaving. So far i've only done it twice and my face looks like Edward Scissorhands face. Practice makes perfect though. I was going to strop but the strop has two types of surfaces one is linen and the other is leather. The leather was two sides though and i'm not sure which one to use. Can anyone tell me if I have to use the rough side or the soft side of the leather surface?
This is the linen side


This is the rough side of the leather


This is the smooth side of the leather

Well to SRP you have come to a great community!! Don't rush to fast to have the perfect shave it will take time! But it is time well spent!

As for the strop use it before every shave and use the linen followed by the smooth leather. There is no correct answer to "how many laps" everyone is different. I personally do around 25-30 on the linen or cloth and do 50-60 on leather.

What Brand of strop is that I can't make out the makers mark

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I can't really make out the entire name but it says Buckingham and

A quick google searched returned "GB Buckingham and Sons"

Oh o.... That's one of the 'don't touch with a 10 foot pole' brands.

It looks like it. I bought a very inexpensive starter kit to try out straight razor shaving and I'm digging it. I might buy a better kit when I get better but I can tell everything that came in the kit is low quality. Even the boar brush they gave me seems lame.

Glad the crap stuff hasn't dissuaded you. If you like the whole Straight razor thing so far just wait till you get some quality gear!! to answer your question - you strop on the smooth leather. If your razors a buckingham too then it will likely be an exercise in futility though.

No, the razor is a Dovo 5/8 solingen. Thanks, i'll keep stropping on the smoother side.

Ahh great. Can't go wrong with a DOVO. All the best!