Thread: Those old barbers sure know their stuff.

Having just received my first straight for Wid here, thanks again, I went to chat with one of the local old barbers. While he doesn't do shaves anymore I knew he had some knowledge that I could take advantage of. One of the first things he did was began telling me the direction of the grain of my beard. I knew he knew what he was doing but didn't expect him to just start pointing it out and such. I think I supprised him when I was talking about hot towels, alum, which hazel and such. He ended up showing me how to strop, gave me a old strop, and a dulled razor to practice on. I had a great afternoon, and I think he enjoyed sharing his knowledge.

He did say two things that I wanted to pose to the membership here for their thoughts.

First he said to use noxzema as a pre-shave, anyone ever heard of that?

Second he said to use a good amount of pressure when stropping. I could be wrong but I thought you were just supposed to use the weight of the razor.

Matt

Yes Noxema is a great Pre-shave

He used pressure into the spine, not the edge I would bet, so it looked much worse then it was,,

How fun! It's neat to learn from a real pro.

Using a good amount of pressure ON THE EDGE when stropping is very effective. That's how my dad, who was a trained barber taught me. I find that the light amount of pressure often recommended by the "experts" on this forum is practically useless.

It was sure a fun way to spend some time. When he started stropping he's pop the razor on the strop to start the first pass, then tell me not to try that until I'm real good.

Matt

Originally Posted by JeffR

How fun! It's neat to learn from a real pro.

Using a good amount of pressure ON THE EDGE when stropping is very effective. That's how my dad, who was a trained barber taught me. I find that the light amount of pressure often recommended by the "experts" on this forum is practically useless.

I find it depends upon the hardness of the steel in the razor, as in softer steel lighter pressure, and to some extent to the type of leather of the strop. For me anyway it's important that the strop be held taut enough so that there is minimal bow, but others have found better effect with varying degrees of a bow.

Here wanna learn how to strop correctly..

The home page of SRP go to the bottom watch Alan/afdavis11 and learn the proper way to stop a razor, he actually knows what he is doing...


Straight Razor Place - Welcome to Straight Razor Place



Learn to do it right then start experimenting later

Noxema feels like proraso.. Stropping with heavy or light strokes is always subjective to the stropper... If I strop with to heavy of a hand I have the tendancy to roll the blade.. Not everyone uses the same pressure.. I think it just takes time to develop your sweet spot.... Better to start light and not screw an edge, than to start heavy and mess the edge up right out of the gate.

There are some people who seemingly do everything wrong but wind up with great results. However, if most people tried it the result would be very different. I would never recommend people use real pressure on the edge while stropping. We see the result of that on this site almost every day.