Thread: Stropping a smiling razor?

I strop them like any other razor. I have always used narrow strops and x-strokes and have not noticed any issues. Cannot speak about wider strops, tend to avoid them

Lynn has an excellent video on honing a smiling razor. I use a X stroke on all my razors and it will work very good on smiling faces.

Heh, I almost forgot this thread existed. Funny the difference a year can make. Settled on an X stroke, haven't had an issue with stropping for a while.

In the old days, by far the most common strop width seemed to be the 2.5" strop. That width required a slight x stroke. 3" wide strops have become a lot more common in the last few years but I still think that an x stroke should continue to be used even on those wider strops. That stroke just works to make sure that the entire edge is properly stropped.

Yeah, all part of the learning curve I s'pose. An X stroke seems to work with every edge, but in retrospect it should've been obvious the straight back and forth motion I was using with a straight edged razor wasn't going to work as well with one that smiles. Perhaps 2-2.5" strops are 'better' in the sense that you'd have to use a stroke that works with most every blade profile, or at least all the ones in my collection.

It's a work in progress of course, always making tweaks to technique, strop tension, razor torque/pressure etc. But my edges are lasting a couple of months before they start to tug/pull.