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

Originally Posted by Utopian

And yet doing so degrades your edges.

With due respect, Howard's remark was specific to an edge taken out to SG30k. Admittedly an extremely fine edge. I've don't have Howard's face or whiskers, or knowledge of metallurgy. As I previously said I still strop my SG30k edges 50-80 laps with no apparent edge degradation. But I wouldn't call his opinion BS.

Originally Posted by Longhaultanker

No. Headed to the showers to... shave.

I see... If you're having issues with people on the site you can send PM's or take it up with the mods.

Originally Posted by BeJay

I see... If you're having issues with people on the site you can send PM's or take it up with the mods.

I've read this post of yours BeJay six times and I can't figure out what you're saying. Could you please explain?
No nevermind, don't.....

Watched the video carefully. I am not going to call his opinions BS, but some of the things he says and does are inacurrate.

First and foremost, that's not the way to strop a razor. Doing what he does WILL surely kill the edge.

He says "where the razor's edge hits the strop, it will flex". That's the sole reason why his edge degrades. The edge must never cause the flex, it always needs to be the spine causing it.

The talk about the coticule, the BBW, the Lush products (which do NOT lather, their sales person demonstrated this "lather" in front if my eyes), all pretty much inaccurate....

It's not about elitism, it is not about the difference in whiskers, blades, skin, etc. It is about the accuracy of the information being displayed and passed around, mainly by the interviewer, since the video does reside on his Youtube channel, at the end of the day.

I enjoyed the part about using natural skin products. I believe that after all, this is the most important part of our personal hygiene, it is all about shaving and maintaining a healthy routine.

I saw the video in question a while back and was quite intrigued by his opinions on stropping. What I found interesting was how few laps he did. The reason I was intrigued by this is because I too have never found any reason to strop as much as others seem to. I have never experienced any improvement beyond say 50 laps. And I often hear of people wanting to use great numbers of laps on different strops. It always seemed futile to me. So I tried going down to ten as he suggested. I lost my edges fairly quickly and found myself on the stones much sooner. Now I still don't subscribe to doing more than 10 laps on linen and 40-60 on leather. Beyond that I think it's just good exercise for your arm. Now I'm not honing as often. That was my experience with Howard's method.

Not to throw a wrench into a thread that's dying anyway but I wanted to point out that even Mastro Livi says a hanging strop will round and kill an edge. He also wont use leather because it "has flakes" and makes the edge rough to the face. The strop his father developed has a type of "Skin" but he says it's not leather. This is the Livi Loom strop. He also doesn't use linen at all because he says it makes the edge harsh.

So this type of thought is shared by personal experiences, although not considered the norm, by guys that know their craft.

To me , stropping is part of the fun and I like doing it. But everyone has their own experiences.

I have learned how to get the best edge from watching Mastro Livi. He does use a very fine linen coated with his chromium oxide to refresh a blade that starts to tug. By using his loom strop, I find I need a minimum amount of laps on the skin to maintain the edge. If you watch his stroke on the skin or linen, its a vertical X stroke. I asked about it and his response is "if you run the edge off the strop, the blade stays in contact flatter without a chance of rolling it." His theory of a drum tight strop does make a lot of sense. Once my bevels are set and the blade sharpened, I very rarely have to use my stones. I shave every day have a course beard and sensitive skin. Again, the beauty of shaving is how individual it is.

Yup, You Want to see a really cool strop ask Dieseld, Or Gasman Loves to strop in his Pajamas, Ty

I'm with Disburden. It's part of my routine, I like doing it. Probably not going to stop. And I'm perfectly content with using linen before leather. If it ain't broke, there's no need to fix it.