Thread: Questions on stropping technique

Hello, I know I am asking a very redundant question to many of you, but I would like to know a few things.

1) Do you strop using very little pressure all the time, or do you start with medium pressure then lighten up the pressure on your strop as you reach the end of your regiment in order to get a realigned edge?

2) Would a linen and fine finishing strop be recommended in the long run? I have a 15" leather hanging strop with a suede and regular finished side, as well as a 8" magnetic backing uneven leather strop and a 8" horse butt leather magnetic backing strop. The strops with magnetic backing have uneven surfaces so should I invest in a good multi-sided hanging strop?

When experimenting with stropping before shaving, I did 30 light passes on my hanging leather strop and then shaved with it. I felt some razor burn as the area I shaved was red so I thought perhaps I didn't strop enough. So after the shave, I went back and did another 30 passes and I tested for treetop arm hair cutting. Nothing, no bite to the edge. So I did 10 passes on 1 micron on balsa, and tested treetop again. It grabbed hairs but I could feel that it would be one heck of a rough shave if I tried that. So I stropped 10 times using medium pressure, then 15 times using light pressure (25 total) and the edge is more refined and will pass the treetop test. Then I did an additional 30 strops with light pressure to see how that would affect the edge and after that if failed the treetop test. So I am guessing that the number of passes on my strop should be somewhere between 25 and 50 passes on my strop?

Any help and insight would be appreciated!
Jake

Some people use fabric first, others don't. It's up to you. But 40-60 strokes should do the trick, but you can always do more. 25 is likely too few.

You should use the finished side of your strop. The rough backs are generally only used with coarse pastes, as I understand it.

Ok then likely it's more my technique and pressure then. Great, thank you Moonshae.

Maybe the razor isn't honed properly , and technique when your new always needs work , but it comes with time , and light pressure is always a good idea , Your shaving technique may be the cause of the burn, but as your new and didn't tell us anything about the razor , it could definantly be the culprit too. Tc

It was my Ralf Aust I got from SRD. From experimenting I am inclined to say it is most likely me as far as shaving technique and possibly honing/stropping. Of course, there's always perhaps bad pre-shave prep as well.

Thanks Tc for pointing out all the various areas that I need to take a look at.

You might have rolled the edge... it happens.

As others have mentioned there can be many reasons why your edge degrades. As a rule, simply shaving with a razor degrades the edge over time of course, and the trick is to slow that degradation to something negligible by way of proper stropping.

However, that's the end point. At the beginning there are many many things that can kill your edge - from your shaving technique to your stropping technique and a lot of other things besides those. Most of us managed to kill their edge initially through their stropping - I know I did. Many times.

Stropping is, in my opinion, the single most important aspect of straight razor maintenance and care. It is also, in my opinion, the single most difficult aspect of straight razor use to master. I'm still trying to master it, and I will continue to strive toward that goal probably until the day I keel over, strop in hand!

Anyway, enough blather. There are a lot of videos and threads on this site showing how to strop, talking about how to strop, giving tips on strop materials and so on. So much so that it can be a bit overwhelming, I'm sure. To make it simpler for you, seek out anything and everything you can find by a member called AFDavis11, particularly his videos. His name is Alan, and he's forgotten more about stropping than many of us will ever know.

Start there, you won't regret it.

James.

Great info, thank you Jimbo! Well the only way to learn is through trial and error so hopefully I raise my stats from less errors to more successes.

Thanks again.

Yep, trial and error is how most of us got to where we are. But taking advantage of the experience of others will speed it up a bit for you too. You'll get there - it sounds like you are doing pretty well to me actually.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

To make it simpler for you, seek out anything and everything you can find by a member called AFDavis11, particularly his videos. His name is Alan, and he's forgotten more about stropping than many of us will ever know.

Start there, you won't regret it.

James.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html