Thread: How do you flip your razors?

I've been doing a review of my stropping technique over the past couple of days (I tend to critically review most aspects of my life every month or so - don't ask, I think it must stem from my childhood ).

The main issue cropping up for me is the razor flip at the end of each stroke. The grip I have on the razor means that the flip is basically done by rolling the shaft with my fingers (while keeping the spine on the strop, of course). My wrist doesn't rotate at all. This slows things down for me at the end of each stroke - not really a problem, I guess, except my finger speed doesn't match my arm speed and therefore my stropping resembles, for lack of a better analogy, a "limp".

How do other people flip their razors?

James.

I flip with a twist of both my wrist and fingers. Start the flip while the razor is slowing, and don't complete it until the razor is moving the other direction.

James, if you don't have Lynn's DVD, his shaving video is still free to DL here on SRP. Download it and pay attention to his stropping. You can't go wrong with using him as a benchmark lol.

I agree with Ilija.

I am beginning to find that, while it's slower, rolling the shank between my thumb and finger like I would a pencil and trying not to pause too long at the end of each pass has improved my stropping and the intended results thereof.

It's awkward to learn though and I'm still not as good as I want to be.

I do that flip too and still have a bit of a limp. Don't worry about it. It's just part of the focus to keeping things steady.

X

When I just started, all I was focusing on was not messing up the edge and not cutting the strop. Since then, my technique developed naturally and so did the speed.

Thanks for the responses guys. Like I said, I'm not overly concerned, but I noticed that the way I was flipping the razor would have some implications for the future in terms of speed and smoothness.

I think I've seen the footage of Lynn's stropping somewhere before (was there shaving involved in it too?). I've also seen Scott's (honedright, right?). They're the videos that got me thinking about my technique as it is right now, and if that technique would ever physically enable me to attain their prodigious speeds (like, maybe in 20 years... ). I know time and practice is a major factor, but I'm thinking that practising inefficient flipping can only exacerbate issues later on.

mparker, you may have hit the nail on the head for me with that tip - thanks. X - it's nice to know I'm not the only limper.

James.