Thread: Stropping smiling blades

I have several razors with nice smiles to them, and I'm wondering how you guys strop these things. I have a 2.5" Tony Miller hanger, and it can be really tough to get the toe and heel to hit the leather, even doing an X.

I tend to favor my straight-edged blades, even though a smile is supposed to be better.

Suggestions?

Josh

Hey Josh - there was a rolling strop thread a little while ago that (sort of) discussed this. I do an arc-type X stroke with the heel leading at the beginning (eventually with the toe leading at the end). Flip and you're ready for the reverse stroke...

I think this was what Scott (honedright) said he did too, but I'm not sure it's exclusively for smilers. However, I've found it works pretty well on smiling blades - it seems to create the equivalent of a rolling hone motion on the strop (at least for me).

James.

I have found from stropping my smiler and following my normal x pattern my strop has some scuffing in patches - is this normal?

I think if I ever use a smily I'm going to have to send it out for stropping.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I think if I ever use a smily I'm going to have to send it out for stropping.

The header says this quote was posted today at 1:55pm. I'm looking at it while my clock thinks it's today (1Mar08) at 9:38 am CST. How's your clock doing?

More confused than ever...

Yeah, the clocks are all messed up on the forum now...

As for the stropping, in my own experience using an X-pattern on a hanging strop seems to work well. I would experiment with the amount of slack you give the strop which could allow for the blade to contact more. If it is too taught, it might not work. Just my opinion.