Thread: Nicked Strop?

Hello forum members,

I am very new to straight razor shaving. That said, I picked up a vintage Shapleigh and sent it out for honing and anxiously awaited its arrival. When it came back I was impressed with how sharp it seemed to be.

The first time I used it was with a feeling of trepidation and concern about my well being. Being an older gent with ageing eyes I carefully and slowly attempted to shave one side of my face. The result was no nicks, no razor burn and a somewhat acceptable shave. I was happy to not feel any pulling sensation at all. This continued for a few shaves. I was not really getting that BBS that I keep reading about and so decided to strop the blade.

At this point my "strop" is only a piece of tanned leather 24"/2.5". In the past, I was practicing with an old razor and accidently nicked the edge of the leather in a couple of spots . After stroping my good razor, I noted that the razor now seemed to drag and pull a bit whilst shaving. I am wondering if I might have damaged the edge by going over the nicks? Is this likely? If I have indeed done this, can I bring the razor back to shave ready with my barbers hone?

Thanks for any an all input.

You should really be stropping before each shave, except for the first honed by someone who knows what they're doing. As well as resetting the edge, microscopic rust is apparently removed from it. As far as nicks go, it depends on the nicks. So long as there no flapping around or other abrasion it probably won't make that much difference. It could just be general technique problems. See here for some great information. Here is some information about repairing a damaged strop.

If the nicks have a 'flap' you can use contact cement to glue them down and go over them with a bottle to flatten them out. Sort of like a rolling pin to make a pie crust.

Improper stropping can roll an edge. As far as bringing it back with a barber hone... maybe and maybe not. Give it a shot. Worse case scenario you have to send it out.

Forum member mparker762 is an expert stropper and has brought a dull edge to sharp with stropping on linen followed by leather.

Here is an excerpt from the barber manual on the SRP Wiki with good info on honing and towards the end stropping.

You can smooth out your strop by sanding down the nicks with a 150grit sandpaper or a pumice stone. Then run your hand over the strop to see if you feel anything might affect the razor. I would also suggest you review the stropping videos in the Wiki.