Thread: Newbie sharpness question

For reference, I've been playing with stropping.

I've had a magic number of 35 linen, 65 leather for quite some time.

With one blade I've been testing the effects of stropping more or less....and now what I enjoy is 50 linen and 80 leather. It is consistently providing me with a much smoother blade to shave with. YMMV.

If I had to do 20/20, I'd rip my face off!

Originally Posted by falconer

I'll work more on the stropping, I've been doing about 20 on the linen and 20 on the leather and been going real slow. When I gave up on the first pass this morning I was trying a flatter angle and it didn't seem to help at all.

Have you been stropping with the spine raised off the strop? Doing that will certainly dull the razor. Watch http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html and enjoy.

Originally Posted by falconer

probably is my stropping, it hasn't been stropped very much out of fear of screwing it up

Strop, strop strop. I have a couple razors Lynn honed for me and they're working well a month out.
Someone around here sells a beginner's strop. I bought a $30 Body Toolz strop through eBay to practice, although I own a couple more I'm going to rotate through.
I refinished the surface of the strop w/ a pumice stone and I'm just getting a feel for "the draw."

Go slow, steady; take your time. This isn't a life skill most any of us grew up with like 100 years ago.

Check your stropping technique.
Good luck.