Being new to straight razors I don't know what to expect regarding a learning curve on different things. My shaving is getting better. My honing with stones seems to be getting better. However, maintaining the edge with a strop doesn't seem to be working for me. The only time I have been able to get the razor sharp enough to give me a nice shave is to use a stone or two plus a strop between shaves. I can do a few strokes on an 8k then a 16k Shapton glass stone then strop and the razor shaves great. But, if I only use a strop I can't bring the edge back to what I like. Is this normal? I understand the stropped edge will be less "shave ready" than a just honed edge but others say they get many shaves between using any stones. I have considered two reasons for my problem. 1. My whiskers damage the edge enough that a stone or two is required to repair it. I doubt this is the case though. 2. My stropping skill needs improvement. This makes more sense to me. This leaves me to the question of strops to use. I have bench strops of various grit sprays down to .1 micron. I have a kangaroo strop with no compound or spray at all. The roo strop alone doesn't seem to do anything to improve the edge. It is wonderful for smoothing and refining an already super sharp edge but may not be aggressive enough to help my razor's edge after shaving with it. If I first use a strop with .5 or .1 micron CBN spray then use the roo strop that seems to work the best. For now anyway. So, even if I don't use stones I seem to need a coarser grit strop to improve the after shave edge. I do have a hanging strop with no abrasive on it but haven't used it for a while. I will try using it by laying it flat on a stone or strop. I can't even come close to using it as a hanging strop. I haven't been able to get the motion down.

I did get better results one time by shaving then putting a strip of electrical tape on the spine to raise the angle just a tad and then stropping. This ensures getting good contact with the edge apex but I don't think this is a preferred technique. It may work short term but it will result in more work needed when re-honing the edge. I guess that's ok though. But putting the tape on the razor each time is a little inconvenient. I would rather improve my technique for the long term anyway.

I'm getting better at the whole straight razor thing but know I am still definitely a beginner. Do you guys think what I'm going through is about standard and I'll get better with practice or am I doing something wrong? And if I'm doing something wrong, how can I improve. Tanks for any help.

Jack

PS
I have two razors. One is one of the "sight unseen" razors on whippeddog.com. The other is an old Boker a friend gave me. I had to make a handle for it and do a lot of work on the edge. It was dull and had a couple of tiny nicks in the edge. Again, I'm a newcomer but I really think the Boker is much better at taking a great edge and holding it better. Better blade steel would be my opinion if this were a knife. I assume this might be the same with a razor. My honing/stropping skills being weak though I can't count on my evaluation that much. Any ideas on this?