Shaving without stropping, What's your experience?

In my experience, if I shave straight off an 8K hone (only if I do a decent job honing), and never strop the razor, my first shave feels pretty decent. With the second shave however, there seems to be a big drop in effectiveness of the razor from the first shave. The third shave seems to be the same or slightly less the same as the second, and it slowly diminishes after that.

I've read that if you don't strop, the carbon steel forms a thin layer of oxide and gives a worse shave. Do you think this is the explanation for the very noticeable drop in effectiveness from the first to the second shave? Do you have similar experiences if you don't strop?

I clean my razors well after each shave but don't strop them until later in the day. Mine have no oxidation on them, so that's not the cause of any degradation in shaving effectiveness. I think the reason for a drop in sharpness is that stropping really works and not doing it makes a difference. I strop any razor I use that evening, and that brings it right back to where it was in the previous shave.

That's why strops. If we didn't need them, they wouldn't exist.

I believe the official reason is that each shave bends the edge around in various not-so-good-for-cutting directions, little bits here and there that add up, and the strop is there not to sharpen, but to get all the cutting bits bent back around pointing all together in the right direction.

Stropping dresses the edge and is one of the few things in straight use that has been considered mandatory since the earliest use of a straight. Think of using a quality chefs knife and taking it to a steel before each use.

It does make a difference however in your case as there might be other issues like your edge itself. Stropping produces smoothness and comfort. if your razor is balking at shaving after 2 shaves stropping isn't your problem.

My experience tells me that stropping is a must - don't skip it. It's fine to go straight from the stones to shaving, but that's only for the first shave. For those that find stropping is not up their ally I'd recommend a Feather Artist or shavette style of razor.

I recently tried a couple of shaves without stropping out of curiosity. Seems like we all have to try it at some point. By the second shave the edge was dragging. Like the gentlemen said, that's why strops exist. I typically have been doing 25 linen/50 leather right after a shave, then maybe 20 more leather just before I use the razor again. Works well for me.