Thread: Still Learning

I purchased a razor a few months ago and started shaving. Overall I was going very slow and things were progressing. I thought that I was doing pretty good and getting good shaves. I added another razor to the shave rotation and I noticed that the new razor was much smoother to shave with. I was not sure if this was because of the razor, sharpness, technique but in any case I was enjoying the shave. I decided to clean the razor up with some MAAS and that worked well but then the razor did not shave so smooth.

I have been trying to learn to strop my razors thinking this would help keep them sharp, but It looks much easier than it is. At least for me. I started pretty good, but counting laps, focusing on keeping the blade straight and the strop tight I found that I would get ahead of myself and nick the strop. I felt like a dork. I have nicked my nice strop a number of times now. It seams like when I strop my razors were getting duller not sharper. I know that I still have not got this right. I got a pasted strop with .5 diamond paste to try and help get my blades back to sharp. I thought that I was making a little progress as my shave yesterday was better.

Today I pulled out a new razor that is shave ready. WOW. nice smooth shave no pulling very close. Even my wife said that it was not pulling my face as much as I shaved. So I know that I still need to work on stropping my blades with better technique to get them truly shave ready. I hope that I figure it out soon. It feels like there is a number of things to master and I have not even started to use a hone to touch up an edge. I like the shave process but am a little discouraged that I'm such a nimrod learning this.

Thanks for the support and help.

Have you seen this video yet? It helped me out a ton!
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html

I just set a timer and strop away until the timer goes off. This lets me focus on my technique and gives me one less thing to worry about. Maybe that would work for you too.

Sounds like you are adding a lot of things to the mix all at once....

For stropping... start your first couple laps slow, and then slowly add speed till you are comfortable.
Always remember to end your stroke at least 1-2 inches from the strop buckles so that your blade doesnt come into contact with it which can dull it fast.
Ive read and have been using a strop with no conditioner, only the oils from my hands. Rub up the leather randomly like a good old baseball glove and if you can remember, before you use it.
Get your wrists and fingers used to the flip motion at the end of your strokes. While some can flip the blade without twisting their wrist, others cant... just find what is comfortable to you.
Use light pressure... you dont want to heat the blade and end up doing damage to the edge by pushing down too hard. Let it glide over the leather/fabric. If your blades are getting dull after stropping, it may be from too much pressure on the edge. Keep enough pressure on the spine to keep it on the strop, but glide the blade.
If you have a blade just for practice and an old leather belt, hang the belt and practice your motions. It may not do a great job with stropping the blade, but it will get the motions down.

Always always strop before you use the blade. More than likely with you not stropping, each time you shaved the hairs were damaging the edge which made each following shave worse and worse. Stropping is part of the shaving routine and can not be ignored.

If you have some music playing while you shave... strop to it too and find a beat/rythm to go with. Then the counting gets much easier. 25/50 begins being almost second nature.

Either way.. as Lynn says... Have fun :-)