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

Hi all SRPers

Well I am now well and truely confused! Just watched a Howard Schechter video and it would seem that I have been doing everything wrong. Has anyone else seen any of his videos with regards to straight razors? What are your thoughts? It seems that taking your razor to a strop removes the burr left behind from honing and leaves an edge that is rough. He sounds quite knowledgable. I would be interested to hear what others think about this.

I think you are misunderstanding his views. He doesn't like honing compounds on his strops and he prefers about 10 strokes on the strop (no pastes). I do the same, so I'm compelled to say that's reasonable. I personally don't find any problem with more strokes on a strop. 60-100 doesn't cause any trouble for me. He says he prefers to hone to 30K and doesn't need to strop. I'm likely to agree with this perspective too. I wouldn't hone that high and I prefer to strop, but I know I can skip stropping anywhere above 12k.

I agree with his sentiment that you should keep a razor sharp. I don't agree that a dull razor compels you to go down to 1k. And, although I disagree with that, I wouldn't put too much credibility into a comment of an expert that's just chatting. It's easy to take a comment out of context. His point was simply . . . why let a razor get dull?

I assume you are referring to this video?

http://youtu.be/WcxgvywdgRw

Hi
Howard is a new name on the scene to me and that video link is correct. I think a lot of what he has to say is perfectly reasonable and as I say he comes across quite a knowledgeable guy. I've never heard anyone talk of removing the burr on a strop only to make the edge worse. I'm sure he said he had observed the effects of stopping under a microscope and seems to suggest that it doesn't have the effect that most would have you believe it does. I thought that strops of some description have been used to finish the edge of tool steels for many years for good reason but his advice seems to contradict that a little.

Originally Posted by 337edy

It seems that taking your razor to a strop removes the burr left behind from honing and leaves an edge that is rough. He sounds quite knowledgable. I would be interested to hear what others think about this.

So does he consider that stropping damages the edge? Stropping is done to re-align an edge. I cannot imagine anything to be wrong with that.

Also, would you please elaborate on any of the other aspects of "everything" that you now believe that you are doing wrong?

I watched the video and he says that any more than ten rounds on the strop is counter productive and it causes the edge and the bevel to round over. That is not my experience. People can say and do whatever they want, I for one will continue on my excessive stropping and getting good life out of edges.

Just his views, if it works for him, great.
Ive read that some Japanese dont strop at all and go straight to the shave.
He said he doesn't like cro ox but people have been using it for years with great results.
There is a million ways to shave the proverbial cat...

A) His stropping technique is crap - possibly deliberately, in order to 'sell' his theories.

b) What a strop actually does: https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com...-stropping-do/

He's lifting the spine off the strop on his turn and flipping over the edge. Odd technique

Originally Posted by 337edy

Hi
Howard is a new name on the scene to me

Howard was active on this forum 8-10 years ago. Haven't seen him in awhile. I haven't watched the video, but I'm happy with stropping my razors, and since every pro barber I've ever known, as well as every pro barber manual I've ever read, are 100% in favor of stropping the razor I'm sticking with it.

There is disagreement on whether to use linen/canvas, but no disagreement on the benefits of stropping with the leather of your choice. Of course good stropping technique is going to 'make it, or break it.' IMHO.

I don't know the man but it sounds like I would dismiss anything he said after ten minutes of listening to him. Just saying :<0)
If you ruin an edge stropping more than 10 laps your doing it ALLLll wrong.