Conflicting information between Dovo and some Forum Members

[Friggin Joe]

I've seen adverse effects on my shave by not stropping enough prior to shaving.
I'm not claiming to know more than Dovo, but SRP is winning so far.
Must be some darned good metal to return to shape so well and go several shaves without stropping.
I wonder if many people used to rough it with bad info or straight shaving was so dead as a part of personal life trying to regain all the common knowledge resulted in misinfo.

http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecent...instrazor.html

[dave5225]

FWIW , I strop my razor right before I shave with it , and I strop after honing . Stropping after shaving is like brushing your teeth before you eat . This is my opinion , and it's worth exactly what you paid for it .

[Bruce]

I think Dave5+ is right on. One brushes one's teeth in the morning and one should strop one's razor in the morning. For those retentives among us, one can also strop one's razor in the evening as one brushes one's teeth before retiring. Keeping one's lips closed tightly will also prevent slobbering tooth paste suds all over the strop; although, it seems that some old barbers recommended the use of lather. Hmmm... Perhaps we now don't understand the subtleties of this old advice and assume it's shaving lather. Brushing froth -- the answer for the hurried shaver's stropping problems, could it be that simple?

brushed and ready to retire, Bruce

[dave5225]

FWIW , I strop my razor right before I shave with it , and I strop after honing . Stropping after shaving is like brushing your teeth before you eat . This is my opinion , and it's worth exactly what you paid for it .

I think I need to clarify my statement , when I re-read it I could see how it could be misunderstood . What I meant was that it seems unnessicary to strop your razor after you shave . I wouldn't brush my teeth until after I had eaten because after I ate my teeth would need to be brushed again (for the record , I brush my teeth before I go to bed) . As Spock on the TV show Star Trek might say ; I find stropping my razor after I shave , to be highly illogical .

[heliguy]

I generally give my razors 5 or 6 passes on the strop after I shave just to clean/dry it. I have not noticed any ill effects.

[ForestryProf]

For those wanting a treatise on the subject, read an old thread "The Grand Experiment". As I recall, in this fairly well controlled experiment, when the stropping occured was less important than the total number of passes. Given the same number of passes, stropping before, after, or both seemed to make little difference in either the quality of the shave or the number of shaves before honing was required.

Thus, if stropping after a shave were in fact detrimental to the edge, the razor subjected to post-shave stropping would have needed to re-visit the hone much sooner. Given that this did not occur, seems like Dovo is (knowingly or unknowingly) spreading/perpetuating an urban legend.

Just another data point,
Ed

[JMS]

I'm not so certain this is wrong information. Although I don't do this now there was a time that I would only strop every third use or so. Sometimes it worked well and sometimes it didn't, which is why I strop daily now. I just couldn't get continually consistent results.
As to the fin breaking off, I think that there is also some truth in that. the way I hear people on this forum teach other people to strop (softly, no pressure) goes contrary to the way I have stropped for 15 plus years, which is with pressure (I get something like 3 to 6 months of shaves before I have to touch up a blade) It occurs to me that if you used the same pressure that I do to strop after you shave you could very well break off the fin where it is not aligned!
Most barber stropping videos also show pressure, and shaving and stropping as much as they do might present a real problem that us home shavers may not notice as quickly!

[sonny]

hi everyone.every time i strop after my shave with one of my dovos i have noticed some chipping on the blade.i think that now i have found out why i have honed more times (and sent out to lynn to be honed )in this past year then i thought was normal now i know.............................................. ....

[oldschool]

Interesting. . . it may be true for a Dovo. I just pulled an article by Arthur Boon http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecent...instrazor.html and he goes into major detail about Dovo razors.

He also suggests the value of a 'rest period.'

Regards

[AFDavis11]

I find if I let my razors rest for 48 hours I don't need to strop at all, and I think this gives some credence to the theory (the realignment one anyway).

I also agree that it depends on the pressure you use when stropping. I can use a light touch in the beginning of the cycle and move to more "effective" stropping later, just as JMS probably does.

I also find that the way a strop is treated is also important in the amount of damage that will occur if you strop post shave. If you use hand oils or EVVO as a conditioner little damage will ever occur. If you use sticky fats, hard soaps, or methods that create more draw you'll be more likely to create damage earlier, and with less pressure.

I've usually avoided stropping post shave as I think its a little pointless and hate getting my strop wet. But given the right circumstance and conditions I doubt its harmful.

I'm not so certain this is wrong information. Although I don't do this now there was a time that I would only strop every third use or so. Sometimes it worked well and sometimes it didn't, which is why I strop daily now. I just couldn't get continually consistent results.
As to the fin breaking off, I think that there is also some truth in that. the way I hear people on this forum teach other people to strop (softly, no pressure) goes contrary to the way I have stropped for 15 plus years, which is with pressure (I get something like 3 to 6 months of shaves before I have to touch up a blade) It occurs to me that if you used the same pressure that I do to strop after you shave you could very well break off the fin where it is not aligned!
Most barber stropping videos also show pressure, and shaving and stropping as much as they do might present a real problem that us home shavers may not notice as quickly!