Thread: Mastro Livi on You Tube

Cool, so thats the guy who makes them.
Hmm..I would never want to strop in my hand..
Well I guess he is just a bit more experienced than me.

he's rolling towards the ednge and not the spine? HUH!?


and ditto on the palm stropping...i'd be missing half my hand

I was a bit puzzled by his stropping technique as well. For the first couple of strokes, I thought I heard the high pitched "buzzing" that means the edge was on the strop while the spine was not. But I'm sure there is some rationale or reason behind the technique. After all, he does have waaay more experience than I do, not to mention the razor shaved.

Two years ago when on vacation in costa rica I used my belly as a strop. It seemed to work ok for a few days until I had a little to much to drink the night before. You can can't hardly see the scar anymore. DS

This way of stropping has been discussed before.
Basically: if you really know what you are doing, then this way of stropping can be used.
You have to make sure that the edge doesn't hit the strop before the spine, and that you never put more pressure on the edge than on the spine.

As long as you do that, it doesn't matter how you do it. Of course, this is exremely error prone, and if you make this error on a pasted strop, the edge will be toast. Don't ask me how I know It was my newbie sin, and ultimately my trigger to search and find SRP.

His stropping technique is the way my dad strops, as taught by his father. I've said it before, but as a reminder, my grandfather was a barber, and evidently that was the way it was done years ago, apparently. Now the hand stropping.....I've never seen that done by my dad.

Originally Posted by iron maiden

His stropping technique is the way my dad strops, as taught by his father. I've said it before, but as a reminder, my grandfather was a barber, and evidently that was the way it was done years ago, apparently. Now the hand stropping.....I've never seen that done by my dad.

Your dad probably didn't work with a hammer and anvil all day... I was kind of expecting him to strop on his hand and finish it on the belt

That's amazing! It goes to how much is down to experience & the right touch. If i stropped like that I'd have a rolled edge & carved up strop. It looks so hit & miss, with one side receiving far more attention on the strop than the other. Then he slaps it across his palm a few times & it mows through the un-prepped beard like you wouldn't believe!
Thanks for posting.