Thread: Do we strop too much ?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think in the old days for barbers, stropping was as much a show as to dress the edge. The one thing I remember from back then very vividly was Andy the barber slapping that razor onto the strop and the slapping sound it made. Of course we don't strop like that. It's kind of similar to going into a Japanese Restaurant and they come out to cook at your table and they juggle the knives and tools around as they cook. All part of the show.

My barber di the same in good old Baltimore, 12 Maryland...before zip codes.

True that. Maybe some of you guys remember a video that was going around 7 or 8 years ago of a barber stropping. I think his name was Mr Ham?? (Memory is becoming rubbish as I get older, sorry).

He was slapping that razor around like there was no tomorrow. I've not been able to find that video for ages now - shame really, it was very entertaining (albeit quite short IIRC).

James.

Thanks for the informative post OP; always good to see how they did this back in the day. On the other extreme, some of us are experimenting with over-stropping, and getting great results. All of my current rotation is finished on either a Gokumyo 20k, or an Escher. And since I got my Hidestoart English Bridle, I love stropping so much that all of them get 150-200 strokes between shaves. Results? The best and smoothest shaves I've ever had. YMMV and all that as usual.

This thread has been on my mind. While I prefer a less is more approach with maintaining razors *and* also maintain that slower, more accurate and delicate laps is more effective that a bunch of hasty laps on the leather, I shudder to think that 2-3 laps is enough. For me, that is.

I've proved to myself that I can take an edge that just faintly has the grab on the TP test and turn it into a biting monster with about 80 laps. Just did it again minutes ago. I would not have shaved with it before the stropping and certainly not with 2-3 laps.

I feel ample stropping is critical to shave success and, without it, mediocrity or, even worse, failure.

Interesting thread. In a spanish forum I picked a routine for strong beards that stropped about 60 before and 25 before second pass, then 25 after. I do that, I have an SRD 2"strop, I do 20-25 on webbing+ 40-60 leather, first pass, then 15-25 on leather for the second. After I do 15-25. The smaller number is if I'm in a hurry. If I don't have time, It's time for the DE.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Thanks for the informative post OP; always good to see how they did this back in the day. On the other extreme, some of us are experimenting with over-stropping, and getting great results. All of my current rotation is finished on either a Gokumyo 20k, or an Escher. And since I got my Hidestoart English Bridle, I love stropping so much that all of them get 150-200 strokes between shaves. Results? The best and smoothest shaves I've ever had. YMMV and all that as usual.

When thebigspendur did "the grand experiment" IIRC his conclusion was that beyond 60 round trips he wasn't hurting anything, but he wasn't improving anything either. Of course that was only his impression, and it must be so subtle. We have had guys here in the past, who were strop enthusiasts, that had a progression of stropping. One in particular had like 3 high end strops and would do quite a bit , hundreds of laps IIRC. He referred to it as 'finish stropping.' Whatever floats our boat.

Speaking of progressions, here are three threads from the past encompassing thebigspendur's "grand experiment."

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ght=experiment

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ght=experiment

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ght=experiment

I think it might be hard to compare stropping routines. First, stropping, done correctly, is a very forgiving action. You could probably strop all day long and not cause any damage. Additionally, stropping all day would eventually improve an edge that had striations on the bevel from a low pass count in finishing, but might not ever improve an edge that was honed to a high polish with a high pass count while finishing.

I also believe that each person produces a different amount of edge damage when shaving. So there could be a different amount of "repair" needed.

I can't say for sure though, as I've stopped breaking into people's bathrooms and checking on their final polishing.

I usually go about six months to a year between honing now (I don't shave every day) and find that the need for stropping, both in action and passes, seems to increase over time (between honing iterations).

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Another consideration, visa vis barbers, that just occurred to me ........ Lynn told me his right hand is darn near twice as big as his left from continually honing/stropping razors one after another. Back in the golden days of barbers doing straight razor shaves, I imagine they were pacing themselves a bit, not only in terms of time for waiting customers, but in avoiding repetitive stress injury, even though it wasn't called that back then.

Yes, Jimmy, that makes sense. Good thinking. Barbers were faced with many considerations in stropping. If you watch Liam Finnegan, the great Irish barber at the Waldorf barbershop in Dublin, his strokes are relatively few even though he is doing a stropping demonstration. I bet when preparing to shave, he uses far fewer strokes than we see on the video. By the way, his stropping is joy to watch.