Thread: Strop recommendations

First off that isn't an action shot, daughter was manning the camera. I was trying to show how the strop isn't contacting the razor fully.i have watched this video 6-8 times. I am hoping I can get this razor where it does shave better. Larry who rehoned the razor said it honed up perfectly. He is a big fan of theirs issrad fan, he said they seem to take the less time and are the most consistent. So on that end I feel good about my purchase.

Don't waste your time with the cheapest gear you can buy. Equipment won't make up for lack of practice and stropping does take pracitice, but inferior tools get inferior results. Do yourself a favor and try one of SRD's 3" strops. I recommend the English Bridle leather or the kangaroo. You will pay a little more but if you take care of it it willl last a life time and you are getting top quality for the dollar. Don't give up it's a learned skill. Also use the library here. It is invaluable and free.

Originally Posted by Lockwood124

Hello SRP,

Hope you all are well, I am in the market for a good strop, I have bought two all ready. The first one is a store brand from an online retailer which came with my razor. It is 3" wide with a second attaced machined webbed strop as well. I have been beating my head against the wall, I can get the razor almost as sharp as a DE razor blade, once I go to the leather side it dulls, or really doesnt improve any... Looking at the leather side it is stiff, wavey and concave. The second is a cheap Chinese made amazon special it does about the same as the online store brand one.

I would like to try a good strop before I sell it. Or if you are interested in a Ralf Aust 5/8 razor PM i can make a deal with you. The razor has been rehoned and is much more sharp then when I bought it. I am just frustrated, too much money and time spent for a tugging and razor burn. Right now my Shavette does a much better job and cost me $12. I kinda feel like a fool investing so much money and getting horrible results.

So if you all can steer me in the direction of a good strop or if you would like to end my misery. Let me know.

Happy Holidays!!!

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Don't waste your time with the cheapest gear you can buy. Equipment won't make up for lack of practice and stropping does take pracitice, but inferior tools get inferior results. Do yourself a favor and try one of SRD's 3" strops. I recommend the English Bridle leather or the kangaroo. You will pay a little more but if you take care of it it willl last a life time and you are getting top quality for the dollar. Don't give up it's a learned skill. Also use the library here. It is invaluable and free.

Thats what he has.

When I first started stropping, I could feel a diffence when I shaved depending on which side of the razor was contacting my face. I started to concentrate more on thse sound when I stropped thinking I was using the same pressure, the sound was different coming back to me and i found I was angling the blade slightly. So just make sure you're flat on the strop too.

One of my favourite strops is a SRD 3" English Bridal. In fact, its the one I strop on the most, despite owning a fantastic Heirloom.

What I found that helped me was to strop on an angle, like Lynn mentions. I also found stopping higher then you have your strop helped me quite a bit when I first started... I have my strop hanging off the middle hinge of a 3 hinge door, and its a great height.

This is a different 3" strop from either either of those, but:

Your equipment looks fine. Tell us your honing progression. Are you using one of these to check your bevel. 60x Magnifying Magnifier Jeweler Eye Jewelry Loupe Loop LED Light | eBay

Are you using tape on the spine through your stone progression. Just because your razor is new doesn't mean it doesn't have an issue from the factory. Mark the edge with a sharpie. Add one piece of tape to the spine. Complete twelve full laps on your highest grit stone. Review and see if all the sharpie has disappeared. Custom razor artisan Tim Zowada uses one piece of electrical tape on the spine. When he reaches his final finishing stone he adds two more pieces of tape. Give it a try before purchasing new $$ hardware.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honing/112243-tweaking-edge-tape.html

I've been straight razor shaving for one year, 2 months and I understand your frustration completely. I had two razors that I was honing myself. Then I'd strop and shave. One of these razors came professionally honed but after shaving and stropping twice the edge was degraded. This was due to my lack of experience and ability at stropping. Shaving was ok but nothing like what the experienced guys talk about. I got a razor from SRD in November. Lynn hones all the razors they sell. This razor came MUCH sharper than what I've been able to get from my efforts. I have been able to keep the razor shaving excellently since I got it around the first of November. In the past year, like you, I've experienced getting a razor very sharp on the webbing strop but then the leather one seems to dull it. This is completely related to my ability and technique at stropping. If I had gotten the razor from SRD a year ago I suppose I'd have destroyed the edge the first time I stropped it. But now after lots of practice I'm keeping the razor extremely sharp and am experiencing the shaves others talk about.

I have two strops. The first one I got came from whippeddog.com and is the rich man's strop. It came with a leather strop that is kind of stiff and a webbing strop. I also got a kangaroo with webbing strop from SRD. I love the kangaroo strop because it's MUCH softer and just feels better when I strop. I can't say it does a better job. It just feels better to me. I'm 100% convinced all of the leathers and other strop materials (felt, webbing, linen) that are commonly used work fine and it just depends on which type a given person prefers. With the new razor I used only the kangaroo strop between several shaves. Then one day it felt like the razor had lost a tiny bit of it's sharpness. So I did 10-12 passes on the webbing strop with .5 micron diamond spray (from SRD) and then 50-60 passes on the roo (no abrasive). The next shave was better. This means I can now take a shave ready razor (Lynn's honing) and maintain it with a webbing strop with .5 micron abrasive and the roo strop. If things continue as they have for a month and a half it will be several months before this new razor (Dovo) will need to be honed.

What I'm getting at is it has taken me just over a year to be able to maintain a razor by stropping it. This is a good feeling. I had gotten so frustrated from time to time I almost quit using a straight razor. But I figured if others were doing it I could too. All the experienced guys say they had their own hard times when they started out also. If you want to use a straight razor just keep at it and one day all the time practicing and effort will pay off. As I said I had two razors before I got the Dovo that came shave ready. I also bought two used razors on ebay to try my hand at restoring razors. I use them for practicing using a light stroke with consistent repeatability. I think it only takes one bad stroke to damage the delicate edge on a straight razor. Go very slow to maintain accuracy. As time passes the speed will just come all by itself. But when learning I have to stop and force myself to slow down. When you watch videos of people stropping with lightening speed just watch for entertainment purposes.

I'm no one to give advice but IMO stropping effectively requires more practice time than only stropping 50-100 passes between shaves. I sit there and practice on a "practice" razor while watching tv. I'm usually paying more attention to the stropping than I am to whatever is on tv. Practice makes perfect but it takes perfect practice. I've also spent a lot of time learning to hone razors on stones. While I see improvement I think if I had spent that time practicing stropping I could have become more proficient at stropping much sooner. All the experienced guys agree that stropping is the key to getting great shaves. Listening to their advice is all well and good. And it helps more than I can describe. But I have had the feeling that they were full of BS since I could try what they suggest and still not get the results they describe. The delicate touch needed to strop or hone razors is something that can't be described in print or verbally. It only can be "felt" after taking the advice and practicing. That's how it seems to me anyway.

Hey Lockwood,

Nice strop and fine razor there.

You may be aware already, but I would like to offer a clarification. Stropping does not sharpen a razor. It does, however, polish the edge resulting in a smoother(sharper feeling) shave.

Stropping maybe a few hundred times slowly and carefully might bring the "edge" back. Short of that, you may need send it back to Larry and while you're at it, buy a couple more razors, particularly, a Sight Unseen from Larry. Keep your Issard untouched, the holy grail to which you can compare your other new shaving razors. So, by testing the edge HHT, TPT, etc., you'll know if the edge has gone south compared to the untouched, prohoned razor. At least, that is my approach to it and I had a lot of other "variables" in the beginning.

Cheers,

Simon

Thanks, for all the responses. One the razor is sharp, I feel it is 95% there. Big improvement from when I got it originally. I may send it back I will see. The issues I was having is that it would would be more sharp after I stropped it on the fabric side. The pull more after I stropped it on the leather side.

I can see a lot goes into this, and so many variables are so subjective. Watching the Lynn Abrams video, he states to use light pressure, but I see a great deal of deflection in the strop. What I did was listen for the sound the razor made in the video and try to match that. That has yielded better results.

Maybe the razor needs to be rehoned, who knows. The aircraft mechanic in me wants to take on the honing myself, ultimately that may be the way I go. Which is how all things go for me, I work on my own cars, home maintenance you name it I do it. I was hoping to get a shave ready set up to give me a good baseline. So I am disappointed.

Yesterday I went to the local barber for a shave. He complained how course my beard is, the shave gel he used my skin absorbed like a sponge, Proraso does the same thing. I paid $15 for a rough, razor burned shave.. So the take away for me was I have a very course beard. I may go to the art of shaving, get a shave from them and see what they have to say.

In theory the straight razor makes great sense, I do get very good shaves out of my DE and shavette be nice to never have to buy a blade again.

Thanks for the honing article, that was very informative I did buy a Norton 4k-8k stone, I do needed to get a 12k and a flattening stone. I have used the Norton on my kitchen knives, with great results. Or maybe I shou try a theirs issrad shave ready razor.

Honestly I a, tired of the massive time and money investment with lack luster results. I have also put green paste on one side of my fabric strop, and that has helped.. It is nice to pick up my de and get a near perfect shave... It would be nice to have my straight razor be the same. I payed good money, bought good equipment, did a ton of research, but nothing has been as advertised.

The barber told me I should grow a beard and save my self the agony....