Different strop materials and the end result of the razor
Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. My Christmas was very nice.
Only been at this for a year so my experience is limited. Until the past month I've been only using razors I honed. I've used these different strops and compounds.
Restoring strops
Poly-webbing with .5 micron diamond spray
Linen with .5 micron chromium-oxide crayon
Felt with .5 micron diamond spray
Felt with .1 micron CBN spray (I don't know if this has much effect)
Final strops
Leather on "poor man strop" from whippeddog.com
Kangaroo strop from SRD
No matter which stop I use or which "restoring" strop I use before one of the "final" strops when I shave I can't tell any difference. I have put a note of which stropping selection I used and kept it with each razor and I can't tell any difference when I shave. So, I'm betting if I didn't know which strops were used I couldn't even hazard a guess (Pepsi challenge) as to which strops stropped which razor.
I'm guessing a more experienced shaver using a razor stropped by a more experienced stropper might have enough experience to feel a difference when shaving. Also, a more experienced stropper may be able to get results from different strops that a newbie like me can't.
So at the moment I'd say the strops we use will be based solely on personal preference on how they feel when using them. Maybe one person can get better results from certain materials.
Another thing to consider is that these comments are based on me stropping razors I've honed. So my honing skills of limited expertise probably effected the results. I got a Dove Nov 1 from SRD that Lynn honed. I've maintained it very well using only the webbing/kangaroo strop I got from SRD. I have the SRD .5 micron diamond spray on the webbing strop and the roo is bare. In the future I'll try using the felt strop as the "other" strop paired with the roo. I like the feel of the webbing and felt more than I do the linen (even though the linen works). While the razors I honed will give me ok shaves the one Lynn honed has a feel of "sharperness" that my other two don't have. Even now after going on two months of use it's a better shaving razor than the one's I've honed and stropped. So IMO this PROVES a webbing (.5 diamond spray) and roo works. Even in the hands of a newbie still in the learning curve. If that was the only strop I had I'd be good to go for maintaining a razor's edge. The only way to test different "restoring" strops on that razor is to deviate from what is working great. I'm not going to do that. While I'm very curious about it I'm also of the "if it's working, don't try fixing it" mindset. The difference in the leather strop I have and the roo is like night and day when it comes to stropping. The kangaroo is VERY soft and I like using it much more than the leather. Then again I haven't used the leather enough to break it in properly yet. But as I said the leather and roo both do a good job.
SUMMARY
In the hands of a one-year newbie ALL of the stropping materials seem to work just fine. So if any other newbies are thinking you'll get better results from a different strop (like I have thought), that may not be the case. You will get more experience and be able to decide for yourself which you like better. This is great, but I doubt if it will improve (or degrade) your shaves.
Thought I'd post my thoughts as a newbie that may help other newbies.
Hope everyone has a happy new year. Be safe. :D
Jack
