Thread: Please help me understand the basics maintenances

Originally Posted by Tomdraug

Good luck, this is fun.
My 2 cent from other side of the pond.
Indeed, in Europe we seem to strop less, hone less, fuss less. I remember my grandfather's strop and razor, you'd die if you had to use it. It looked like torture implement, rusty and all. Grandpa never nicked though.
I strop leather only, maybe 20 max. 30. I hone maybe twice a year, only refresh on coticule, very light slurry and clear running water then. Only few passes, maybe 20. Depends on razor, too. But, I rotate two, three razors. Not always, sometimes I like one for the whole week, depends on my mood.
One advice - don't overdo. Shave once, second time without experience you will get nicks. Shave slow and no pressure.
Get to know your beard. How it grows, where is the grain direction. Shave with the grain. You will get nicks, when you go against the grain. Second shave is against, but do it after you get some experience.
After shave don't clean the blade too aggressively, just remove water. I use hand soap to clean, but this part I am not sure, if it is correct. Don't try to polish with the towel, you will ruin the edge and blade polish. Just dab. Look if water came in between the scales, this is main reason of blade rusting. I use toilet paper to dab blade and clean inside the scales.
Strop lightly, no pressure. I don't strop after shave, just put my razor out of bathroom.
Have fun!
Greetings from Poland,
Tom

Thank you very much Tom


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Not to contradict but I personally think that linen is important and seems to do alot for the edge.
Go with 50 linen and 50 leather, slowly ,that's my advise.
Good luck

I must try that!

Originally Posted by JOB15

Not to contradict but I personally think that linen is important and seems to do alot for the edge.
Go with 50 linen and 50 leather, slowly ,that's my advise.
Good luck

Thanks JOB15


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As you can tell from the comments everyone has their own preferences for stropping. I strop on newspaper (50 laps) and then leather (50 laps) before my shave and then 20 laps on newspaper post shave to clean and dry my edge. The nice thing about newspaper is that it is inexpensive and you don't have to worry about nicking your strop. I use a leather board strop because I started with one and it is now very comfortable for me. I have a very nice hanging strop but when I use it I tend to lay it on a table and use it like a board strop.

Best of luck...and enjoy the journey. SRP is a great place to hang out and learn. There are many experienced and knowledgeable guys on here who can answer your questions.

Originally Posted by Whizbang

As you can tell from the comments everyone has their own preferences for stropping. I strop on newspaper (50 laps) and then leather (50 laps) before my shave and then 20 laps on newspaper post shave to clean and dry my edge. The nice thing about newspaper is that it is inexpensive and you don't have to worry about nicking your strop. I use a leather board strop because I started with one and it is now very comfortable for me. I have a very nice hanging strop but when I use it I tend to lay it on a table and use it like a board strop.

Best of luck...and enjoy the journey. SRP is a great place to hang out and learn. There are many experienced and knowledgeable guys on here who can answer your questions.

Thank you


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I,m not starting a debate or wish to disagree, with anyone on this subject., I,m just going to give my observations and a non scientific experiment, but the results tell me something. I had this discussion with my hone guy a while back because he recommends the linen in the stropping routine.

So what I did was with my control razor, and soap, I did a week of shaving 25 linen, 50 leather. Alls good so far this is my normal routine. The next week same razor, touched up to the same level as the previous week, no linen just 30 leather, my shaves all that week were a little rough and could leave some stinging after applying my alum. My theory, (for me) is the linen does have a use and I believe it realigns the edge and starts the blade straight and ready for the leather to polish. Anyway, not a very aggressive, analytical test but one that I Have done 2 more times to validate for me. To each his own, but I do know what works. Tc

I strop with the Kanayama 90000 which is known to have a not so good linen.

From my limited tests , it seems that the linen does more for the edge than the leather cordovan .

Strange but true .

I need to procure a linen strop then. Thank you for sharing!

Just a side note, the only linen. Use now is flax linen, and ve been getting them from Torolf at Scruplworks, it seems to be the same linen. Got n my Neil Milller strop. C