Thread: Strop technique advice

I'm only one straight shave into my journey, having done well my first time. I would say that I got at least as close as my venerable Mach 3 aside from my chin, which I nearly removed after too many passes. I think my skin stretching must improve.

The strop I have is the basic Dovo hanging style with the white linen on one side. I thought it was wider by the picture, but even the others are at most 2" wide. This one is 1.75" wide by the by.

Is it acceptable to run it X times on half the blade, and X times on the other half or will that make the center section that overlaps 'too' sharp, i.e. uneven?
If so, should I move the blade slowly across as it moved forward and back? I'm also moving at glacial speeds as a beginner, so I wondered what's a good number of passes for a slow poke if i'm using the linen side to warm the blade?

Welcome,,,,
here is some help,,,,

Category:Stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Welcome,,,,
here is some help,,,,

Category:Stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I did read that section and watch the videos, but I wanted to see if i could get some more insight regarding my specific strop. My razor is a Dovo Astrale by the by.

O.K.,,,,
I don't have much knowledge about strops, but hang in there,,,guys will respond that do.

I have a dovo strop from AOS. Sounds like the dimensions of your strop. After I rolled my edge twice! I got a paddle strop from star. Bridle and latigo. 3 inch wide. That solved my problem until I got the hang of it and now I use a big daddy from star shaving. The x stoke is a little rough to use in the beginning. I still occasionally use the dovo but the big daddy works great IMO.

Don't over-think this. The width doesn't matter. You do an X motion and the entire blade will see the leather. You are just dressing the edge not really honing it so just strop away.

There's no real need to hit the entire edge of the blade on each pass on a strop. I have several "narrow" strops and will often just do the heel half for a while, then shift over and do the toe half for a while, then shift and do the center half for a while.

Strops are not abrasive so there will generally be no issue with "unevenness" when stropping, or at least not like there could be with a hone.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

There's no real need to hit the entire edge of the blade on each pass on a strop. I have several "narrow" strops and will often just do the heel half for a while, then shift over and do the toe half for a while, then shift and do the center half for a while.

James.

+1


I sometimes finish with a few x strokes, but it works fine without.

-Dan