Aye from Philly!

New straight shaver from Philly.

I've been shaving my head for 18yrs or so after I noticed some pattern baldness at the end of my senior year of HS. I used a DE for about month and I immediately went to the straight. I bought a TI, the first few shaves were fantastic, minus almost peeling the potato.

I'm here to learn everything I can and become part of a collective. I want to learn about honing and properly stroping, since I've already rounded my edge on my first strop. Too much pressure, arrogance and too much speed. I have a $300+ letter opener at the moment.

Anyway, cheers fellas!

Bill

Aloha!

Welcome. Glad you are into straight razors, Bill. Stropping and honing are two of the delights of the art. I recently just got into hoining after decades of sending my blades out for honing. It's been a great experience honing my own blades.

There is an art to stropping and it is all too easy to roll the edge as a newbie. I'd definitely wander over to Youtube and watch the Lynn Abrams video on stropping if you have not already. Lots of great advice here in the library and via threads on stropping.

Enjoy the journey!

-Zip

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Originally Posted by ZipZop

Aloha!

Welcome. Glad you are into straight razors, Bill. Stropping and honing are two of the delights of the art. I recently just got into hoining after decades of sending my blades out for honing. It's been a great experience honing my own blades.

There is an art to stropping and it is all too easy to roll the edge as a newbie. I'd definitely wander over to Youtube and watch the Lynn Abrams video on stropping if you have not already. Lots of great advice here in the library and via threads on stropping.

Enjoy the journey!

-Zip

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Thanks for the welcome Zip. It's greatly appreciated.

I have watched Lynn prior to stropping and still rolled the edge. My dilemma now is it if can be brought back through stropping or if it must be honed. I'll send it out first time around, but I plan on learning to hone myself. Shaving with a straight is therapeutic as it is and I thoroughly enjoy shaving now, I can only imagine honing you own blades.

No worries, Bill.

As most here will tell you, proper stropping may just bring that edge back into alighment. Try that before you send it out for honing. Many guys treat the strop as a continuation of honing and IMO, this sometimes leads to too much pressure and pushing the edge too much. I never have. I was taught to strop and shave by my cousin who was a professional barber that shaved as much as he cut hair. He stressed that the strop is for alighment only. The honing stone is for sharpening. Yet some are really into treating their strop as a continuation of honing. They coat the linen side of the strop with Cr-Ox and go through extensive stropping laps. I personally only do 20 laps on dry linen, then 10 laps on leather after shaving to make sure the blade is aligned and dry before storage. I only do 10 laps on leather before shaving. Again, my philosphy is that the strop is for alignment, not honing.

Both philophies work. It's just a matter of what works for you.

-Zip

Hello and welcome to SRP.
Have fun learning and enjoy your time here on the forum.

Pete <:-}

Welcome to SRP! You are definitely in the right place for learning and refinement of skills! Enjoy your journey!

Shawn
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Welcome to SRP!!!
A lot of great folks and info here, check out the library.
Send it out to be honed and start fresh. You don't need to use pressure to strop.

Enjoy and have fun!!!!!

Hi and welcome aboard. Any questions feel free to ask

Welcome to SRP, Bill! If you cannot recover the edge with some careful stropping, then you may need to get the razor honed.

Speed on the strops is an edge killer for newbies, myself included. Find a pattern that you can strop (e.g., x-stroke, racetrack, windshield wiper, etc.) consistently with little to no pressure on the edge of the blade. Be focused on the flip. Roll the tang between your thumb and forefingers to flip the blade rather than relying on wrist action. Good luck and have fun!

Wow, you guys are awesome! I'll utilize the search bar before I start asking question and get directed to the search bar. :D

Arrogance and ignorance are a bad combination. I only have met a few people in my life who I figured had earned the right to their arrogance. I'm not sure what arrogant stropping would look like but ignorant stropping is anything that messes up your edge. Practice after learning how to do it properly will fix your stropping.

Stropping is not hard as long as you approach it methodically and thoughtfully, kinda like marriage. Screw either of them up and you will suffer. Fortunately, just a little honing is all that is needed to repair a poorly stropped razor. There are plenty of stropping videos to help you get started.

What razor and what strop do you have?

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Originally Posted by Utopian

Arrogance and ignorance are a bad combination. I only have met a few people in my life who I figured had earned the right to their arrogance. I'm not sure what arrogant stropping would look like but ignorant stropping is anything that messes up your edge. Practice after learning how to do it properly will fix your stropping.

Stropping is not hard as long as you approach it methodically and thoughtfully, kinda like marriage. Screw either of them up and you will suffer. Fortunately, just a little honing is all that is needed to repair a poorly stropped razor. There are plenty of stropping videos to help you get started.

What razor and what strop do you have?

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Well said. Either way, I THOUGHT I knew what I was doing because it sounded good while doing it. I relied on my ear.

I have a 5/8" Stainless Scales TI. Figured I'd make the investment early on rather than later down the road. I've been watching so many videos on honing and using the strop, I thought I was doing it right. Obviously not.

Honing, I'd like to learn on my own, I just don't know where to start. I've trying to research starters kits. Hortons, King and stuff. I'm just in circles.