Thread: Did I ruin my edge with my first stropping

Hey everyone,
So I picked up my first straight razor last week from classic edge. Spent 500 on my initial set up.

I have shaved twice now, and both have been good experiences. No ingrown, no reddness, and no nicks. I had been growing a beard for the two years and haven't shaved my face in that time.

I stropped the blade for the first time this morning, and shaved my forearn to test. About 15 m later I developed some redness and burning on my skin.

Do you think I messed up the edge?

How does it shave your face? But yes you could have , stropping is generally one of the big mistakes made by new guys. And it's one of the most important maintenance steps in keeping the blade right , as for the rash on your arm , did you use lather , or why are you shaving your arm? The face will tell or take it back to where you bought it and have them look at it or find a mentor in your area. Tc

I didn't use any lather on my arm, just shaved to see if this would happen before shaving my face and having this rash on my face. I will lather up and try another small spot.

As tcrideshd mentions, good stropping technique take a lot of practice, watch a few video's, it easy to roll the edge on your blade if you make a mistake. Spine should never leave the strop, and speed kills. A good idea is to practice with an everyday kitchen/meal knife, slowly and practice flipping the knife with the spine never leaving the strop.

As far as testing the blade on some arm hair...usually no more than an inch patch of hair will do, and do it dry, it's to test the blades edge more during the honing process, your razor is shave ready by Phil so you shouldn't need to do this.

It's very possible that you've rolled the edge, but in my experience, I don't believe shaving your arm is a reliable gauge of how sharp your razor is. If it worked good on your face with lather & prep, it should be fine.

Yea, I'd not shave any arm hair unless I was checking to see if I had the bevel properly set before honing higher up the progression. It is possible you rolled an edge stropping for the first time. Only real test is to lather up and do a stroke or two shaving. You should know from that if the blade feels wrong.

Bob

Thinking I knew what I was doing I ruined several razors on their first stroppings.

Heavy handedness is my enemy.

Shaving your face is the only way to tell. Stay consistent with your pre-shave prep to set your baseline. Go for that trouble some area for the final test.

Shave the lather not your skin.

Ya I applied some cream and did a test and no rash. Thanks for the help everyone!

By the looks of that picture im going to agree with mark that you might have had a steep angle dry shaving your arm hair. Shave testing on a lathered face is the only true benchmark on how a razor performs but I find that a well honed edge will cut hair on your arm even above skin level. So maybe next time try to just graze the hairs on you arm just to see if they pop as you hover the blade a little above the skin. I personally always felt that stropping wont hurt your edge and should be relatively forgiving to the blade as long as these criteria are met 1. No bearing down on the blade it doesn't have to be feather light but just be mindful of weighing down the blade with your arm and deforming the strop, not good. 2 Holding the strop taught. yes it also doesn't have to be where your knuckles are turning white and your ripping the screws out of the bathroom wall, just tight enough to make the surface flat and your stropping should keep it relatively flat. 3. Spine stays on the strop. when turning the razor or stropping, the spine stays in contact with the leather, If the spine comes off the force is transferred directly to the edge and your done its blunt. That said stropping can look rather brutal otherwise. I remember many years ago watching old Italian barbers in my neighborhood stropping before they shaved the guy next to me and it looked rather violent. A lot of cracking and popping of the razor on the leather at high speed and then he shaved his client without a complaint. All very artfully done with a bit of showmanship to boot.