Thread: Stropping

Hey everybody. Is the yellow paste necessary? Or the red/blue paste on your leather strop??necessarynecessary

Originally Posted by Blomski

Hey everybody. Is the yellow paste necessary? Or the red/blue paste on your leather strop??necessarynecessary

No its not necessary , put the paste on a other strop and use this one only for stropping whit clean leather. Good luck.

As far as I'm aware the pastes are just used to recover a marginally dull edge. It's a step between stropping & honing without having to take your razor to a stone. Some people like pastes, others never use them - I haven't, & have no plans to at present, but I'm pretty new to this myself. Stropping with pastes isn't something I'd call part of your normal stropping routine. If you do use pastes, you'll still need a clean strop for everday use, it's not something you can add to your existing strop & then remove & then add back on a whim.

Experienced str8 users please correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh OK, but do I need to apply something to the leather and canvas? I mean water or oil...

No you don't. There are leather conditioning products you can get, but they're not really needed. The natural oils from your hands are normally enough to break a strop in. Just rub the palms of your hand into the leather every now & then, other than that strops break in naturally over time & use. You may eventually want to clean your strop but that'll be a ways down the road & certainly not something you need to worry about for a while.

Originally Posted by Blomski

Oh OK, but do I need to apply something to the leather and canvas? I mean water or oil...

No you don't. No water, no oil. The earlier answers are absolutely correct.

The only oil you put a leather strop is either a light coating of neatsfoot oil to restore some youth to an old dry strop, or oil from the palms of your hands as you rub the strop a bit. You want to keep the leather nice, clean and smooth.

Some people (usually citing some long ago words of wisdom from 85 year old barbers) say that you can brush a little light coating of shaving foam on the leather prior to use. You wipe it off with a towel when you are done. That can help make an older dry strop a bit softer again. I have tried it. It changes the feeling of how the razor slides over the leather, but for me I couldn't tell any difference in the edge or how the razor shaved so I stopped.

Most people would keep their canvas clean, especially if they only have one strop. All you do with the canvas is 25-30 round trips prior to the leather to remove any little metal pieces etc. Many also do a few strokes on canvas after finishing shaving to make sure the edge is dry before the razor is put away.

If you have a second canvas strop you can get some paste or diamond spray and use that strop for somewhat more restorative efforts of dulling edge.

I have used nothing on my leather, and it is finally coming into its own after maybe 20 uses. I rub it with my hands until it is slightly warm. The last 2 times I've stropped my razor, the leather all of a sudden has a different "feel" to it (both to my hand when rubbing it, as well as the feel of the razor on it), much more pull than before. The oil in your hands is enough, but it may take a short break-in period to really be nice.