Thread: A stropping challenge

So this mornings shave went very well still sans leather.

I hit the edge, remember that the edge was not as sharp as it should have been to start this little experiment, on newspaper (spine leading) 6 times and went at it with no strop in between passes.

Result. BBS, no irritation, and minimal burn with my A/S. The burn was comparable to my other shaves with the leather.

I used the same razor and have used different soaps all week. The next challenge will be Monday. A 3 day beard. We shall see sports fans.

I think my strop may be going away.

Pitch the leather? Now I dare you to pitch the newspaper.
Stropless is stropless, after all.

I'll just go to a stone. I have a 14 razor rotation so the number of times that I would have to use the stone once these are honed to perfection would be minimal.

EIther way. I may get rid of the leather.

I still have my doubts about this whole thing, I'm sorry to say.

After a freshly hone a razor all the way down to 1um, it still doesn't cut as well as after I strop it.


Doubtfully yours,
S

interesting. I'll try it either this evening or tomorrow morning when I shave, on a 3 line swaty.

this doesn't (on the surface) sound much different than using a pasted strop... about once a month all my razors have an appointment with some CrO on a leather strop (if I think they need it, and they usually do by that point). after my razors do 10-20 laps on paste, I usually don't strop them on leather (just 2 or 3 on linen, but that's just to get the green stuff off :-P ) so I could see how this would work.

sounds like a cool experiment, I'm in. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I know Howard Schechter used to advocate as an option, a few passes on a coticule prior to every shave IIRC. I believe stropping afterward was part of the design. I also think that was edge leading. But, weight of the blade only and only literally a few passes on a polishing stone IMO I haven't found any significant difference with spine or edge leading. Either one seems to work as intended.

Now for throwing away the leather. My 2 cents:

1. I like to strop.
2. My edges seem better after stropping.
3. I regard my leather strops as a CLEANING TOOL after the shave since I ALWAYS do 30-35 passes on a leather strop after drying my razors off well with a dry towel. My razors seem to last much longer between necessary touch ups when I do the post shave stropping then when I dry the razor and just put it away. I store all my razors out of the bathroom area in a dry location and my edges still perform better than if I just dry and put them away.

But....the absolute best thing about this straight razor thing we do? Many many things work well for many many people. There's commonality, yet it's an individualized sport. So.....seriously, more power to anyone that finds the leather strop to be unnecessary for them.

Chris L

Originally Posted by singlewedge

I have discovered one problem though. My edge was not a perfect triangle, ie not sharp enough. It will need about 2 hits on some newspaper Friday, but other than that still shaved like a beast.

So how many passes before your edge was no longer well aligned/triangled/sharp? At what point do you decide to "strop" on the hone to realign the edge/remove some metal?

Perhaps I'm misreading what you're saying, but that statement seems to confirm that stropping does make for better shaves. Maybe the "Less is more" bit holds true, but I can't agree that none is more (and it seems you can't either).

So here goes.

An edge is supposed to be a perfect triangle from spine to tip. This triangle is designed to be the best method for cutting. Stropping, due to its flex, MAY round that triangle at the cutting edge of the edge.

Removing the leather and using ONLY a stone or newpaper on a hard surface allows you to maintain that triangle, or perfect cutting edge.

My gauge as to whether or not to go to newspaper first or a stone would be if the blade were pulling at my chin or if there was a lot of stubble left after the first pass.

So far I can say that neither has happened. I just used the newspaper this morning to get the edge where it should have been on Monday when I started.

Now that I believe that it is dialed in Monday I will just right into it and see what happens. If it ends in a crappy shave. I have learned that I need to hone better to get the perfect triangle that I an looking for. Nothing else. If at some point I attain that edge that I am looking for and the METHOD fails, not using leather, then I will have learned that leather does indeed maintain that edge profile.

We shall see on Monday with a 3 day beard.

Doesn't newpaper somewhat mimic the flex of leather to a certain extent? If you are trying to go leather free for the maintenance of geometry, I think you are blurring that line by using newspaper. Either go hone-only, as you proposed in your original proposal, or you are not really running a truly empirical experiment, in my opinion.

I'm with Seraphim, with regards to his conclusion that you're "not really running a truly emperical experiment." You are stropping (proper stropping, not hone stropping) on newspaper. Furthermore, I remember reading (somewhere on here) in a number of threads that newspaper is mildly abrasive (moreso than leather). So that's sort of like using a pasted strop, which will round the edge too. If you are worried about rounding your edge on a leather strop, I would have to say that sounds to me like your stropping technique needs some work (I don't mean that to be offensive or to say that your stropping techinque is poor, but proper stropping should not round an edge such that it hurts shaving performance). You could just use a paddle strop or a bench strop or use more tension and a lighter touch on a hanging strop if rounding is something you're worried about.