Thread: Worthwhile pre-stropping straight razors?

Please forgive me beforehand for this silly question but I've been walking around with it a few weeks now and have to get this of my chest.

I was wondering if is worthwhile to pre-strop all my rotation razors for the whole week at once?
Assuming that once a razor is properly stropped and all the iron threads/thingummies are alligned,
will they stay in the same position or will they jump back to their pre-stropped position during the week?

I'd love to know

I believe that during the shave and over time the teeth become un-aligned (dont know if thats the correct word). I would say it is best to strop each razor before the shave, It wouldnt take much, if any longer and you know its gonna be at it's best.

Hope this helps
Swiftsteel

I don't buy the whole barber's myth about resting edges regaining their shape, etc.

If the steel is deformed elstically, it will regain it's shape pretty much immediately. If it has gone past it's elastic limit, it will be, and remain, deformed, and no length of time will ever correct that.

Stropping will help remove daily micro-corrosion and also burnish the edge (and help straighten any edge imperfections). If you like stropping, and fiddling around with your razors, by all means strop away all week long (I've been known to do this...). If you want your razor at it's best for it's turn in the rotation, you'd be best off stropping it up to peak performance and then giving it a healthy coating of oil to prevent edge corrosion prior to use.

See this article for interesting info, as posted by another member in another thread.

Thanks for your replies, they both make sense. And of course it would best to strop just before the shave,
but often my mornings are quite rushy and there for try to eliminate actions as much as possible.

Thanks, I can finally sleep in comfort again.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Stropping will help remove daily micro-corrosion and also burnish the edge (and help straighten any edge imperfections). .

See this article for interesting info, as posted by another member in another thread.

+1 on both of these (does that make +2?). Stropping days in advance will straighten the edge, but you will still get the micro-corrosion that needs to be removed by stropping immediately before the shave. You might be able to avoid that if you oil or grease the blades immediately after stropping so the air can't get to the edge, but then you'll have to remove the coating to shave, which would probably defeat the purpose of trying to save time by stropping in advance.

I read somewhere (was it in that same article?) a suggestion that the microcorrosion actually helps keep the blade sharp, since it preferentially erodes the burred/displaced metal on a microscopic level, and then all the junk gets stropped away. I don't know if this is true, but if so it may be the origin of the "old barber's tale" of the edge restoring itself while the razor rests for a day or two.

I always pre-strop sometimes up to 10 razors at a time, never had a worse shave for it.

If you want to be certain that you have the best edge possible then strop just before each shave. We can talk about micro-corrosion, elasticity and deformation etc but the safest, surest bet is to strop just before each shave.

Just my two cents,

I thought the whole reason behind the "7-Day Set" was to allow the owner to strop his week's razors on Sunday to save time during the week?

Originally Posted by shuredgefan

I thought the whole reason behind the "7-Day Set" was to allow the owner to strop his week's razors on Sunday to save time during the week?

I have never heard of that reasoning. From my perspective, the 7 day sets were/are an extravagance.
If a person really wants to find out if there is a difference then simply try it both ways. It will take exactly one shave to find out. Shave one side of your face without stropping then the other side after you have stropped the blade for 30-50 round trip laps.

I think having a seven day set is to do with the theory that resting a razor will allow its edge to re-align. Whether this works or not i couldn't say, it would however extend the time between honing's but that is only due to the longer rotation.

Swiftsteel