Thread: The Best Day Ever!!!!!!!

Well im the happiest person alive right now Lately ive been concentrating super hard on my honing skills and after every session i would test shave and it was never perfect at least not like the razor i got honed from Lynn! Well it turns out it wasn't the razor, the hones or lack of skill it was my stropping go figure. Up until today i was stropping with no pressure i mean probably less than the weight of the razor, well today i was reading through the stropping threads and came across a post talking about stropping pressure, so i gave it a try and what do you no after a small pyramid on my Norton than Chinese 12k than a little paste i hit my vintage horse hide strop (with some added pressure of course) showered and shaved. best shave yet BBS no irritation no pulling. So i re-honed all my razors and im super duper happy

Eric,

That's great! My stropping has been sub-par until I started really working on it in the last month. I still have a long ways to go, but it makes a world of difference.

I agree that adding some pressure can be good. Just be careful and take your time--and experiment.

Josh

Congrats on the discovery and improvement!
I tend to use a bit of pressure when stropping and I have to be careful not to nick when transferring from the downward stroke back to the upward stroke (flipping the blade over before moving back up the strop) BAD IDEA.

One of my biggest complaints when reading how people were taught to strop on this forum was the fact that they were told to strop with a light touch which goes contrary to to my understanding of good stropping! When I read "stropping is king" a thread started by honedright, I practically jumped for joy, but as I read on my heart sank to see how some of the other forum members verbally pummeled him. I must say that I am glad you discovered this important principle!

Originally Posted by JMS

When I read "stropping is king" a thread started by honedright, I practically jumped for joy, but as I read on my heart sank to see how some of the other forum members verbally pummeled him. I must say that I am glad you discovered this important principle!

That was a great thread and I think back to it often. I think the thing is that one man's sense of pressure is another's light touch and that it's a little dangerous to tell a new shaver to use pressure on the strop as they're likely to use too much.

X

Originally Posted by xman

That was a great thread and I think back to it often. I think the thing is that one man's sense of pressure is another's light touch and that it's a little dangerous to tell a new shaver to use pressure on the strop as they're likely to use too much.

X

Its mostly a matter of experience, practice, and a willingness to experiment and make mistakes!

I have always used a bit of pressure as I had a hell of a time NOT using a bit of pressure. If I tried going lightly on the stone or strop I noticed that I couldn't tell if the edge was making contact just by feel. I watched the edge and sure enough it was off the frigging stone and strop, both... When I placed just enough pressure to feel the edge gliding on the surface I found I got better results. Right, wrong, or indifferent, pressure works for me at the moment.

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

I have always used a bit of pressure as I had a hell of a time NOT using a bit of pressure. If I tried going lightly on the stone or strop I noticed that I couldn't tell if the edge was making contact just by feel. I watched the edge and sure enough it was off the frigging stone and strop, both... When I placed just enough pressure to feel the edge gliding on the surface I found I got better results. Right, wrong, or indifferent, pressure works for me at the moment.

IT'S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION!!

WE WILL FORCE EVERY ONE TO STROP WITH PRESSURE MUAHAHAHA!!!

Wow i don't feel so alone! well like i said i re-honed and stropped all my razors and well its definitely amazing what proper technique can do. the good thing is ive figured out my stropping problem before i purchased a new strop that will wait till next month now! anyway im definitely going to get one from Tony just don't no which one. Any in put would be helpful thanks again for the support guys

Nice job Eric,

I have used a bit of pressure since I started with my stropping. I will have to experiment more though as I want to see if I can get it even better.