Thread: Help with stropping technique please

I can't seem to figure out how to change the thread title but there are pics and a vid below. A little back story for this razor. It is an Ralph Aust 5/8 round point purchased from a reputable dealer on SRP. It was given as a gift to me from my wife, so it had sentimental value. Given that , I didn't want it to be the razor that I learned on and messed up. So when I got it I made sure it would cut hair and put it up. I trusted the source so I wasn't to worried about it. I got another blade and learned on it. I recently sent that in to be honed. I decided to get the Aust 5/8 out and use it. I was getting ready to do a video tonight and noticed that the side of the blade with etching has been honed fully from edge to edge. The opposite side not so much. It looks like it has been touched only at the outer edges. I am not sure what would cause this. I haven't honed this blade at all. The only honing has been done by the vendor. So take a look at the pics and videos and let me know.

Originally Posted by INstr8

I can't seem to figure out how to change the thread title but there are pics and a vid below. A little back story for this razor. It is an Ralph Aust 5/8 round point purchased from a reputable dealer on SRP. It was given as a gift to me from my wife, so it had sentimental value. Given that , I didn't want it to be the razor that I learned on and messed up. So when I got it I made sure it would cut hair and put it up. I trusted the source so I wasn't to worried about it. I got another blade and learned on it. I recently sent that in to be honed. I decided to get the Aust 5/8 out and use it. I was getting ready to do a video tonight and noticed that the side of the blade with etching has been honed fully from edge to edge. The opposite side not so much. It looks like it has been touched only at the outer edges. I am not sure what would cause this. I haven't honed this blade at all. The only honing has been done by the vendor. So take a look at the pics and videos and let me know.

The blade may have a slight warp or uneven grind to cause the uneven looking honing but as long as the 2 sides of the bevel meet it should be sharp & shaveready.
Your stropping looks ok but I can't tell if you're doing an X stroke or not which may well be needed with that razor.
Also I don't like the height of your stropping setup but that's subjective.

onimaru55,

Using 3 in strop without an x stroke currently. I was struggling to find a place to affix my strop and hung it on a towel hook. I was surprised myself when I tried it and it worked.

Having been the original heavy handed stropper I'd venture to say that on tape you stropping looks good but I's also say lighten up on pressure. I look at stropping two ways. Light as a feather, meaning the weight of the razor only. The other way is imaging a plane landing and taking off as I do my laps so that the razor is flipped on it spine but the edge doesn't touch the leather for an inch or two, like in taking off and landing a plane. To cure my heavy handedness I've gone to bench strops. That helps me with the pressure factor.

Originally Posted by Razorfeld

To cure my heavy handedness I've gone to bench strops. That helps me with the pressure factor.

Very nice razor and strop. Good stuff.

From the video, I slightly get the impression that the strop is being held a wee bit slack and that their seems to be a tad bit too much pressure being applied. Also, the angle is a bit steep for my liking.

Razofeld tagged something very important here. Pressure.

With a board strop, I find it very easy to maintain feather weight pressure and do many laps(I don't really worry about or care to much about speed). With a hanging strop, I was finding that the more fatigued my hand got, the more uncouncious pressure I was exerting on the blade. I just don't have that issue with the board strop. Much of this has to do with the angle and ability to change the orientation of the strop to my stroke wherever I feel the most comfortable.

Also, slow and steady laps. You can even go slower than that. Putting that strop flat on the table and watching the contact of the entire blade along the strop for each lap nice and slowly, I feel helps. Lots of laps aren't bad, and, if done right, very beneficial and, sometime, can right an off-feeling edge. This is not true if the laps are fast and sloppy. Slow wins the race here. Generally, I do 20-30 linen and a *minimum* of 60 on the leather. I frequently go much higher on the leather as I enjoy stropping. I do feel just fine stopping should I feel hand fatigue coming on. That's when danger lurks.

I hope my experiences can be of some help or food for thought.

Good to hear you are already on your way in this journey

Simon

I just watched the vid again (on phone before) and apart from possibly to much pressure it looks like the strop might have had a little twist to it. Try to keep it flat and you seemed to use a lot of hand movement for the flip which might affect your stropping as well. Will attach a vid as the stropping technique he uses is excellent
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html

Thank you all for the feedback, i will apply all of this the next time i shave. Hopefully tonight should this work project give me enough time. Also, keep the feedback coming i really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by INstr8

onimaru55,

Using 3 in strop without an x stroke currently. I was struggling to find a place to affix my strop and hung it on a towel hook. I was surprised myself when I tried it and it worked.

If spine is warped you wont strop the high part of the bevel effectively without x stroke.
Door knob height is better for me but as I said , subjective.

Im with Oz use an x stroke. Ensure you get the whole edge dont just hope. It doesn't need to be big but it does need to be a x

Generally I think you are doing pretty well, based on the time between the need to hone. I think you need to work on a few small things. The root cause might be that you are getting a little complacent. The strop needs some serious treatment, like hand oil, for several days. That scratching sound is too aggressive. I put all kinds of oils into my strop to keep it supple. I won't go into detail as I'm always experimenting instead of staying on course. The strop needs to come down a little. The stroke needs to slow down. You need more strop tension too. The edge will begin to get rolled from a perpendicular stroke. The edge should be angled when stropping (or an x pattern can help guard against rounding).

There are two ways to strop an edge. 1) rounding the edge slightly and 2) smoothing it, but maintaining the geometry. You've started rounding a little more than you used to. It isn't wrong, it's just different. What you should do is simply hone it (or get it honed) and follow the advice above and throughout the thread to try to extend maintaining your edge longer. A simple touch up honing is a very easy thing to accomplish and it's probably about time you dove in.