Thread: strop routine before or after or both

Just curious about folks stropping habits. My grandfather always let his razor rest a day between stropping up before his next shave. I learned that way and did it for long time. After some thinking on it and hearing some different views, I started stropping 20/60 linen/leather after shaving and 20 leather before. Just what works for me. Does anyone here still let their razor rest or is everyone a mixture like me. Just curious

I never stropped a razor right after using it. Not because of the rest the razor babble, but because I'm a bit of a heavy stropper and prefer to do it right before a shave. Don't use linen either strictly a Lipshaw Microtome stropper. 40-50 passes on the diamond patterned leather side, 100-120 passes leather side. Y.M.M.V.

Modern science supported by electron microscopes and metallergy data doesn't support the theory of resting your razor before honing.

Yeah kinda what i thought. Old timers had curious ways and they hand em down. On the other hand, I guess the old boy shaved with them for fifty years and it worked for him. just wanted to see what the preferences were on the site not really debating the pros or cons.

Originally Posted by feltspanky

Modern science supported by electron microscopes and metallergy data doesn't support the theory of resting your razor before honing.

I strop 20-30 passes on felt then 50-60 on leather before shaving then 20-20 on felt after shaving. Been doing this for about three years and my edges are lasting a lot longer.

The theory of stropping after shaving is two fold; it heats the edge to promote drying and cleans the edge. Crud and moisture left on edge after will promote degrading the edge which equates to shorter edge life which needs to be honed more often.

As far as letting the edge rest........?

Strop when done and put it away ready to go in case I need a back up. I do throw a few strokes on as a "refresh" before the shave each morning.

The rest a razor theory is pretty much debunked by barbers back in the day who used the same razors day in and out.

As to the stropping thing do some research on the stropping forum for a post a few years old called "the grand experiment".

To me stropping is stropping no matter how you do it.

Before and after. Most before. Depending on the strop depends on the laps done

I do 20-25 strokes on canvas before, 50-60 strokes on the leather, and then follow a shave with 15 canvas and 30 leather respectively, then oil my blade and put it away. This seems to work well for me and my blades seem to hold their edges pretty well.

20 - 25 after on either linen or cotton. Let it sit for day to dry fully.
about 35-30 on leather before I retire and then put it in the draw back in position in rotation.

Out of habit and for the enjoyment, I strop about 20 on Scrupleworks or TM Horsehide before use.

Can't see a reason to change this.