Thread: School to teach men how to shave. Article 1904.

Originally Posted by nessmuck

So now.....tape or no tape while stropping !!! Wait until Glen sees this one !!!!!

Maybe that could be his next big experiment.

Originally Posted by overgripped

Fantastic article, thank you Martin103- these old articles are always interesting.

I will try the stropping technique and perhaps the post face massage.

Please do and post your findings!

Well last night after reading this.....I stropped by lifting the spine a touch. You could hear that noise when you had it just right. My stropping was a lot slower...but trying to make that noise going up and then down is going to take some practice...BUT I did notice a big difference !!! I have the perfect razor to do some more experimenting on tonight, also lathered per the instructions too. I have been stropping wrong for 3+ years.... GREAT THREAD

After reading Mike aka Nessmuck success with this i did a little experiment this morning. I stropped my razor like i usually do then shaved half my face, then i put 6 layers of tape on the razor and stropped on leather (60) this shaved the other half, and there is definately improvement for sure. Now i wonder how the razor will perform with normal stropping?

I, too, strop my heavy wedges with the spine up, or very lightly touching. A bit of "torque" toward the edge. I figured if 2 or more layers of tape were used to hone, this would be beneficial. They get much smoother and sharper to the point I lay off the fabric some!
I found it interesting about how he described the lather as stiffening the hair, not softening it?

Martin ......you have changed the way I strop now. This article is SPOT ON !! I just stropped a BOKER 101 Red Injun that was shaving ok before.... But after stropping with the spine elevated ....the shave was smoother and sharper. Everyone NEEDS TO READ THIS . THANKS AGAIN !!!

I feel some descretion should be used on thinly-ground blades in doing this. Very light stropping on those to keep from damaging or weakening the bevel. We must remember that the author was English and it was 1904, so he may have been referring to more wedgy blades. I also think that a bit more slack in a hanging strop will accomplish this effect as well. I use mostly a bench strop, so I cannot slack off like one could with a hanging one so lightly contacted, or slightly lifted spine is the way I do it on my bench strop.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I feel some descretion should be used on thinly-ground blades in doing this. Very light stropping on those to keep from damaging or weakening the bevel. We must remember that the author was English and it was 1904, so he may have been referring to more wedgy blades. I also think that a bit more slack in a hanging strop will accomplish this effect as well. I use mostly a bench strop, so I cannot slack off like one could with a hanging one so lightly contacted, or slightly lifted spine is the way I do it on my bench strop.

i must agree with you, after reading this article i was quite curios about the technique, but afraid to lift the spine to unequal heights. i figured that if i allowed my hanging strop to slack a bit, it would produce the same or a similar effect and it made sense since you would find a lot of old barbers also allowing their strops to slack and i must say that the shave that followed was incredible.
martin, my apologies for not informing you of this favorable experience earlier, and thank you for the article!

happy shaving to all
hal.

Awesome article!

Agreed...good article indeed,thanks !