Thread: To strop or not to strop. (Howard Schechter) Videos

Reminds me of a guy, may have been on another shaving forum, who says he prefers lathering without a shaving brush. If that works for him, more power too him, but I'm sticking with the brush, and I'm going to continue stropping my razors. That is what works for me.

I finish on a Suehiro 20k, and I tried on one occasion shaving directly after honing, and whilst shaved acceptably, it felt a bit harsh. Over the last 6 Months I changed to Kanayama strops. I have never thought it possible to over-strop, and I stick to that opinion. My routine with the #70000 is 20 laps on the canvas, 30 on the suede and 100 on the Cordovan leather. Can't speak highly enough of the shaves.

Strop.

Just Strop.

I finished a carbon steel knife on a Suita stone a few weeks ago. I TPT-ed the edge and I felt it was biting, similar to a freshly set bevel on a razor, after 1K. I stropped that knife, and the bite was almost gone. I repeated that exercise, because I was using the knife and dulled it, checked again, same again.

I cannot imagine not stropping, but then again, I am not able to reproduce the scenario in question here. All I can say is, the strop always helps in my case. I often try the edge on my face after the finishing stone, and it's never as good as the stropped edge.

I have also not experienced any such thing as an overstropped razor. I am making some strops now and I used a single shave-ready razor to test the leather. Must have stropped that blade a 1000 times over in a single day, then I shaved with it. That was a very good shave, indeed.

This is all so strange how people can be having such differing results with stropping. Me, I find that anything more than 7 or 8 light passes on a bare strop kills the edge...................And with anything other than Burt's yellowstone on the strop, like crox, kills the edge immediately....................................... .....................

I have found that, with my technique, you can't possibly strop too much. More is better. In fact, a couple of times my thoughts have started to wander and I lose track of time while stropping. When this happens my razor is typically super smooth and sharp afterwards (but it takes a bit of time of course)

Originally Posted by Aerdvaark

This is all so strange how people can be having such differing results with stropping. Me, I find that anything more than 7 or 8 light passes on a bare strop kills the edge...................And with anything other than Burt's yellowstone on the strop, like crox, kills the edge immediately....................................... .....................

This is interesting, I'll try it and post my results

I tend to notice that folks involved in the "Professional" aspect of the straight razor / wet shaving business, like to distinguish themselves from other competitors with a technique or style that might seem new or unique. This may garner followers or not depending if you agree with his methods, but it becomes their trademark or signature move. just look around at all the vendors or edge gurus out there and they all seem to have some honing shtick that they call their own. Now I don't doubt that coming off an ultra fine stone like a 30k that 10 laps on leather would be sufficient to give you a good shave but as you see in the video he claims more is worse. That is his proposal and makes people scratch their heads saying to themselves " hmmm maybe this guy is on to something" now he has your attention good or bad hes got you thinking about him. its a kind of subtle marketing to separate himself from the pack they all do it. Think even back when Murray Carter started talking about honing razors with unorthodox techniques and all that it got the community in an uproar. Now everybody in wet shaving knows his name, when before maybe only the knife guys did. You see what happens?

I honed a blade today, finished on my finest jnat, stropped around 7-8 times and tried shaving. Then stropped 60 more times roughly and tried again. The difference is night and day.

Without the intent to start a debate and not quoting anyone in particular, my thoughts are, if an edge degrades on plain leather, I would look closely into that leather, or double check the technique (no pressure, if there is any pressure it has to be focused on the spine, don't let the leather roll over edge, etc...). I see people slapping those strops sometimes and while that might work in capable hands, I am not sure it adds any value. JMHO, correct me if I'm wrong.

@Razorfaust I like your post there, totally on point. The important thing is to always remember what's real and what's show.

(Is he really honing that blade?!)
https://instagram.com/p/BLONJRmhoSt/

If stropping is bad for a blade, I got a dozen razors that haven't seen a hone in months to argue that. Sure eventually they will get dull and the strop wont help anymore, but consider shaving without stropping for 2 months. I dare you.