Thread: My stropping and the results. Comments appreciated

Originally Posted by gssixgun

There are basically 3 stages of stropping that everyone goes through

1. Trying to do no harm
2. Doing no harm
3. Doing the edge some good

Everyone has to do that progression, we all have gone through it at one point in time..

Myself I was taught way back in the Dark Ages (Pre-Internet) to use the linen and to use it quite effectively, I find it to keep my edges in shape for stupid amounts of time doing 20 ish on linen and then 40ish on Leather before every shave.. Once you get to stage #3 many things that were plaguing the comfort of your shave, will be of zero consequence...

I think I'm in stage 2 as long as I'm focusing on what I'm doing. A split second of drifting and I'll damage an edge just enough to make it not shave well.

Originally Posted by eddy79

My suggestion would be to use your strop on a bench like a bench strop. If you can hone with very little pressure that might help you to strop with very little pressure too. Worth a shot anyhow. Good luck

I tried my bench strops after trying a hanging strop for a week or so. The hanging strop was so awkward I figured I'd go back to something I was familiar with. Bench strops. I have different types for sharpening knives. Balsa wood, leather of different densities and also a couple of kangaroo strops. Roo leather is great, but expensive. Kangaroo puts a REAL smooth edge on a knife. I'm very very good at sharpening knives so I thought the bench strops might be better for me and several people I saw here were using them. Still, I was so new to razors I still was extremely uncoordinated and still getting poor results. IMO, if any razor honer has never learned to sharpen knives beyond just getting the edge capable of opening a cardboard box they won't understand the difference. There's a huge difference in becoming proficient when keeping only the edge on the stone or strop (knives). Keeping the spine and edge both (razors) on the surface has a completely different feel to it. Getting used to that is still giving me a hard time. My hand instinctively wants to raise the spine off the surface. Everyone says "don't think about sharpening knives when learning to hone razors". That's good advice but it's hard to do. Hard for me anyway. Raising the spine of a razor will do two bad things that I know of. It will raise the angle too high for one. It will also increase the amount of pressure on the edge. This combination will roll the edge apex, creating a burr. This happens with knives also but a razor's edge is far more delicate than most knife edges. IMO that means even the tiniest mistake has far worse impact on a razor's edge. Anyway, I decided neither type strop (hanging or bench) is better, just different. So I decided to learn to use a hanging strop. Too many people are getting great results with hanging strops for me to question their worth. For me to bounce back and forth between two different tools will result in me learning slower I think. Once I'm more comfortable with the hanging strop I may try the bench strops again. For now I'll keep things as simple as I can. I'm beginning to see improvement using Shapton glass stones and a Rich Man's Strop from whippeddog.com. I did buy a linen strop to replace the webbing strop on my strop because of all the good reviews these get. I had gotten somewhat used to the webbing strop and the linen strop felt terrible to me. Why did a strop that almost everyone loves feel so bad to me? It's because I'm not skilled enough to use the thing. I was getting used to the webbing and now trying something completely different. Big mistake for a newbie I think. I don't think I'm skilled enough to use one type of strop (or stone) and I'd be doing my self a disservice by trying different things. I believe I have the proper tools. I also believe I don't have the proper skill. I think my skill will improve faster if I keep the type of tools I use to a minimum.

Keeping it simple is the best way to go. Keep using the same thing and you can learn to get the best out of it. Constantly changing means constantly learning and that takes longer. Good luck