Thread: New and ready to take the plunge

Originally Posted by ejmolitor37

Also forgot to mention, I'd recommend a 3 inch wide leather strop. You can get one from SRD and its about the best value around. 3" is not necessary but very nice to have.

That's the part I'm trying to understand!
What is it about a leather strop that makes it so desirable compared to a newspaper or balsa strop?
Better edge? Ease of use? Feeling like grandpa?

(Related question: why hanging strops vs bench strops?)

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

That's the part I'm trying to understand!
What is it about a leather strop that makes it so desirable compared to a newspaper or balsa strop?
Better edge? Ease of use? Feeling like grandpa?

(Related question: why hanging strops vs bench strops?)

A strop is simply another tool in your arsenal to keep you razor edge sharp and smooth. If you have a coarse beard, then you tend to emphasize sharpness. If your face is sensitive, you tend to emphasize smoothness. I have a coarse beard and sensitive skin, so I am always looking for the perfect edge that will be both sharp and smooth. Having a variety of strops can help you achieve the "feel" you are looking for when you shave.


A bench strop is flat, just like a hone. However, the strop surface, whether it is leather, cloth, wood, or paper, is softer than the hone. Whereas a hone is normally used with an edge leading stroke, the strop is normally used with a spine leading stroke. With the flat surface of the bench strop, the bevel of the razor is essentially flat on the surface of the strop with the exception of the cushion effect provided by the substrate. If you are trying to increase the sharpness of a blade, bench strops are useful.

A paddle strop is essentially a bench strop with a handle. You may come across a loom strop which is a cross between a hanging strop and a paddle strop. It is a paddle strop with a loop of leather than can tensioned to your liking using a screw mechanism.

With a hanging strop, the substrate, whether leather or cloth, will deflect as the razor is moved across the surface. This puts extra pressure on the edge of the blade. This can tend to round off the edge of the blade just slightly making the edge more smooth, but often at the expense of sharpness.

Leather strops can be composed of leather from many species of mammal. Cow, horse, buffalo, kangaroo, pigskin, sheepskin, etc. can all be used, but the characteristics of the leather will vary. Cowhide is the most readily available due to the wholesale slaughter of domesticated cattle for beef. Kangaroo hide is highly prized, as is cordovan shell horsehide. Some strops are made of synthetic leather and are sought out by vegans. Natural leather contains microscopic abrasives called silicates. When you rub your hand across the surface of the leather strop, you are bringing the silicates to the surface where they can polish the edge of your razor.

Any type of cloth can be used as a strop as well. Traditionally, linen, denim, cotton canvas and wool felt were used as these were the cloth materials readily available in the 18th - early 20th centuries when straight razors were commonly used. Today, you can find cloth woven from polypropylene, nylon, polyester, etc. The advantage of the natural fibers is that, like leather, they contain silicates that help polish the razor's edge. However, if you are using the cloth strop primarily to clean and dry the razor with the intention of stropping on leather afterwards, the synthetic fiber cloth works as well.

Some people use abrasive pastes, powders, or sprays on strops. These can be green, chromium oxide (CrOx), synthetic diamond, cubic boron hydride, aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, etc. Some people are tempted to use green polishing compound from the hardware store on their strops but soon learn that the high quality CrOx designed for razors does a better job as the particle size distribution is more tightly controlled. If you wish to use any type of abrasive compound, avoid putting it on your primary strop. Use an less expensive bench or hanging strop for that purpose and minimize cross contamination.

Many people use paper as the substrate for pasted strops. By the way, the newsprint you mentioned comes pre-pasted. The ink used in the printing process contains microscopic pigments that have abrasive properties.

Some people have a single strop with a cloth and leather component. Others have multiple strops of various types. The nice thing is that strops made of balsa, basswood, felt, cotton, leather, etc. can be made inexpensively from components purchased at a local hobby store. Even an old leather belt can be used as a strop.

I have a really nice Tony Miller heirloom strop as my primary hanging strop, but I have quite a few DIY strops that I use as well depending upon what I want to accomplish with the razor's edge.

By the way, the reason 3" strops (whether bench or hanging) are suggested for newcomers is that you can strop with the entire blade flat on the strop. When you are new, mastering the movements needed to strop without damaging either the blade edge or the strop itself are hard enough. With a narrow strop, you have to add a diagonal component to your stropping stroke (called an x-stroke). As you become more experienced, you might prefer using the x-stoke on a narrow strop. However, until you master the blade flip while keeping the spine of the razor in constant contact with the strop, it is best to use a full-width strop.

That's a very comprehensive answer!
You should make it a sticky!

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

How much the strop material makes a difference? I've heard of people stropping on denim and their own skin!
Murray Carter is famous for stropping on newspaper wrapped on a sharpening stone - and considers green compound on leather a notch below a luxury.
Back in knife-land, I tried various options without getting the impression that one is superior to another.

That doesn't mean much though... My deburring skills still suck big time.

It will be a lot easier if you think of knives and razors separately. A knife you just get sharp. A razor has to be sharp and smooth and the edge is much finer. Green compound often has particles larger than the stone grits we finish razors on and leave a harsh edge. We use razor quality crox rated to 99% pure and .5 micron. There is a lot of information here about it and a search will yield a lot of good reading. We don't raise burrs and consider doing so unproductive waste of metal. Watch some of Gssixgun vids on YouTube and he will explain a lot for you.

So I had my first shave. A Dovo Best 6/8 shave ready from CassicEdge.ca. Using a somewhat wet hair, I performed the hanging hair test, and I'd score it at HHT4 - it didn't pop instantly on contact with the blade, but it didn't take much to.

Time to shave.

I took a shower, applied the Proraso foam to my cheeks and neck (I'm keeping my beard for now).
I waited two minutes and tried various grips on my razor - can't say any of them felt comfy, but it was workable.

So I pulled my cheek and shaved WTG with my dominant hand on both sides. Moved to my neck - that was much harder to pull it without anything slipping. I worked bottom up - still WTG, but shaved the bottom before the upper neck. I passed on that stubborn spot on a few times (and didn't think of reapplying shaving cream there). After nearly face-palming (don't literally do that with a razor in your hand!), I reapplied shaving cream and went for a second pass. Put Nivea sensitive skin aftershave afterwards.
This morning I see a nick on my cheek that wasn't there yesterday - so something very superficial.

I found that shaving without glasses wasn't hard on my face, but trickier on the neck.

Lessons learned: don't pass a second time without lather. And wear glasses the moment I'm done with the upper cheeks.
Also, I'll learn to shave with the other hand - flipping the razor is a a little tricky.

As an update, I shaved less than 5 times with it before I was feeling excessive irritation and having some hairs surviving two passes.
I talked to the folks on the #srp IRC channel and they diagnosed my razor as suffering from 'stropping with too much pressure'
So I had to send it to ClassicEdge for honing. Good thing that the owner is so helpful and noob-friendly!

That being said, I'm investing in a 8000 grit stone and some compounds - I'm Mr. Clumsy Hands and I need a way out of my next screw up.

Stropping can take a while to get good enough to actually improve the edge. Until you get to that stage I would recommend not using compounds as they will increase the damage caused by poor stropping. Good luck with your shaves and your edges

Originally Posted by eddy79

Stropping can take a while to get good enough to actually improve the edge. Until you get to that stage I would recommend not using compounds as they will increase the damage caused by poor stropping. Good luck with your shaves and your edges

In other words - you're telling me not to rely on compounds for touch-ups. If I screw my edge again by poor stropping, I should sharpen it again with the stone, and only use the compound after the stone?

If your stropping is damaging the edge stropping on compound will make it much worse. The stone may give better results as it is flat and not flexible. Just make sure you use light pressure and keep the razor flat. Maybe check out the Gssixgun vids on YouTube

Originally Posted by malaverdiere

That's the part I'm trying to understand!
What is it about a leather strop that makes it so desirable compared to a newspaper or balsa strop?
Better edge? Ease of use? Feeling like grandpa?

(Related question: why hanging strops vs bench strops?)

malaverdiere I apologize for just getting back to you and I am sure this has already been answered but I don't like to leave people hanging. You can certainly use newspaper and balsa to maintain an edge. The point of linen and leather is this, the linen side warms the edge to prep it for leather. The leather then straightens the edge and smooths it. That being said, you can from what I understand use a balsa strop with chromium oxide to maintain an edge for a long time. I have not used this method so I don't have any valid info to share on that point. I have tried the news paper and it does seem to work well. There are lots of other substrates that can be used as well, denim, felt and others I can not think of off hand.

Ill offer a bit of advice that helped me a bit with stropping. "burry" the spine in the strop. I put burry in quotes because you don't need excess pressure to get the job done but you do need a certain amount of pressure to get the job done. I like to explain it this way, put your razor on your strop spine only. Perform your stropping and listen to what that sounds like. It should be pretty quiet. Then take and lay the blade down and strop as you should with the blade laying flat you should notice a difference in how it sounds. This was how I finally understood how I knew that I was getting the contact that I needed. I hope I have not confused you with this explanation, if I have I will happily try and either share a video to show what I mean or pics. I hope you have success!