Thread: Stropping over nicks

My practice strop has a few small nicks at the top end (just the smooth surface of the leather sliced off). Very thin slices, no deep holes but is missing the very top surface. My question is will stopping over these cause any issues with the edge of the razor? Should I avoid sliding over them?

Hard to say without seeing. Pic, maybe?

If you're talking about little nick/slice's from flipping a little early and they're really shallow, it probably isn't a problem. If you can feel them with the razor, then it might be and I'd avoid them. You can feather them out with some emery cloth, pumice stone or fine grit sandpaper. Just be sure to get the grit out of the leather. Don't make them deeper, just feather the edges. If you don't feel them, I'd leave it as is.



Howard

Thanks Howard. Hard to catch on pics. Probably speaks to the nature of the nicks. They are very very shallow. Really only removed the upper most layer of the finished leather. Can't feel them with the razor just bare finger tips. Think I'll continue as is.

I think nicks have to be quite bad before they start doing any harm to the razor, so long as the defect in the surface is a scratch or missing leather rather than a raised bump or flap of some sort.

Recently I got an old strop from ebay which was in worse condition than the photo suggested, and I can feel the nicks as the razor goes over them, but it seems to work fine and not damage the edge. I started very cautiously with a razor which was borderline between needing stropping and needing a touch-up on the hones, but it was improved by the strop and I've now used that strop for several razors, all of which benefited. YMMV and all that.

(Quite a few vintage strops have a lot of damage, which shows that the owners continued to use them as they got more and more nicked. Doesn't prove anything, as the owners might have been putting up with bad shaves, but I suspect that a bit of scratching doesn't do any harm.)

I think most of us have 'been there and done that.' I nicked up a 3" SRD premium 1 bad enough that I took a straight edge and made a 2 1/2" out of it. Fortunately the nicks were all at the part where my non dominant had is holding the end of the strop and towards my body. So I was able to lose all of them with the trimming down. I once was stropping and cut a flap in the top end of a Tony Miller latigo. If you're going to drink don't strop.

I used contact cement to glue the flap down and you wouldn't even see it if you didn't know it was there. Anyway, sounds like your fine with the 'damage' you describe. IME as we become more proficient it is far less likely that we will nick our strops. (knocking on wood)