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.

Josh:
After reading this post when I woke up this morning I realized that I had never really thought about it before, I just stropped my few blades with smiles and shaved... So I went upstairs to the "Shave Den" and pulled out my Sway Back smiling A.G. Ashi and stropped it, trying not to think about it
I noticed that I use a slight flick in the wrist, to follow the contour of the blade as I strop, other than that, it is the same motion as a straight edge
Hope that helps I realize it is a little vauge...

I only have 2 smilies right now and frankly never thought of it... I just assumed I'd strop it fine... seems to be working ok too but my latest aquisition had a very pronounced smile and that one is going to take some work to strop I'm sure... In the meantime I just wish cutting new Heirloom strops in half didn't come quite so natural to me.

Regards

Kaptain "I'm either a half wit or a complete idiot when it comes to stropping" Zero

All my shavers are curved blades. Not sure I can describe my technique in words, but it works. Basically I use an X pattern. The blade will not contact the strop the same as a straight blade. When the blade is flat, only part of the edge rests on the strop. When moving through the X, I'm sensitive to area of the blade that's touching and move evenly through the X for full coverage. While the blade stays flat, i kind of drag it laterally through the X, as I drag it lengthwise along the strop.

While all the edges of my shavers are curved, not all the backs are. For the ones with curved backs, it's a little trickier. For those, that lateral drag includes a very slight up-sweep of my hand to help follow the curved back.

My shave routine includes a pre-shave stropping and then another stropping before the final cleanup around my lips and chin. For that stropping, I spend more strokes on just the distal half of the blade, partly because that's what i'm using for the last of the shave. I still use the X, but less. Since I'm only stropping the distal half, there's less curve to accomodate.

Hope this helps in some way. Regardless of how well I can describe it, it works for me. My razors are curved, I get real stickiness with TPT, clean cutting HHTs and great shaves.

- Dale

When I saw the title of this thread, I was like, "Nah, can't be..." But yep, it was mine. I posted this about a year ago. How did it get pulled up again?

I guess it's still relevant. I still have that razor, and I still avoid it because of the stropping thing... It's a swayback with a really pronounced smile. The times I've used it I've gone with a sweeping motion like Dale describes. I'll have to give that one another shot now.

Josh