Originally Posted by
ZipZop
Aloha!
I have no Cro-Ox on my strop and never have in decades of stropping. I follow the philosophy that stropping is for ALIGNMENT and not a continuation of honing. Others would disagree with this and that's fine. Whatever works for you works for you. My Stropping was taught to me by my cousin, a professional barber that was 20 years my senior, so he was 38 when I was 18 and he taught me to strop. He emphasized that you sharpen with the stone, you align with the strop. He emphasized that both are very important to achieving a smooth clean shave, but that both served a different purpose.
My typical stropping is 20 passes on leather before my shave. Period. After shaving I do 20 passes on bare linen, then 10 on leather just to assure a dry blade that is in alignment for storage. It was interesting lately to see guys like Howard Schechter having this same philosophy of minimal stropping since so many others go through extensive stropping rituals, as if the strop were indeed a continuation of the honing process. Hey, whatever works for you, go for it!
Like I always say, enjoy shaving any way you wish, but the key is to ENJOY it. Honing takes me quite a while. Stropping I can do in 1 minute.
-Zip