Thread: How soon after a shave to give the razor its full stropping?

Originally Posted by Grazor

The newspaper is a good idea Utopian, would help keep any left over residue off your strop. Gonna have to try that.

I have two newspaper strops. One is for after shaving and the other is for after honing. Both serve the purpose of keeping my strops clean. As a bonus, the post honing one is impregnated with mineral oil.

It might partly be affected by how many razors you own, if you use the same one daily then i dont think it matters too much, but if it is going tobe a while until it is next used i dont think it would be a bad idea to give it at least a few laps prior.

I generally use the same razor most of the time, when I used to shave daily i would just strop after the shave and the results were fine, i started doing 10 or so extra laps pre shave but I cant say it made much difference.
I now shave every 2-3 days and usually do 50 laps both pre and post shave but if i miss one out it would be the pre.

I strop immediately before every shave, and it seems to work well. It's all I've ever done.

I tend to do about 10/10 on the poly webbing and leather of my SRD strop post shave after drying the blade to remove any residue, etc. I shave every other day and if my next shave will be on a workday, then it is stropped 30/60 the night before. If I shave on the weekend where I can sleep in a bit and am guaranteed to be more well rested, I will strop 30/60 immediately before the shave.

Back in the day I grew up going to a Barber Shop, not a Hair Salon. I sat on the bench patiently waiting my turn for my haircut (not a hair styling) and during all those years I watched as the men got a hair cut, their ear and nose hair trimmed along with their eyebrows. On many occasions I witnessed the wonder of watching them get a straight razor shave.

Later once I was grown on occasion I would also get a straight razor shave after my haircut.

In all those years, Never Once did I see a Barber strop the razor After the shave! Never! The razor was always stropped Before the Shave.

Now! Whether or not the barber stropped after the shop was either closed or there weren't any customers I can't say.

Personally, I wash the blade with liquid Dawn dish soap after the shave, then rinse it well and wipe the blade dry and then use a blow dryer to make sure that the blade is as dry as possible. After cooling I apply Ballistol and wipe the excess off and store the razor. And that applies whether I'm going to use that razor the next day or next month.

Seems like there are as many stropping routines as people, kind of confusing to a newbie like me.
But if there is one thing I don't understand, it's you gusy saying you will strop on leather before you shave, if it has been a while since you used that razor, even if it was stropped ater it's last use.
If you are not using it, then I am guessing that the edge should be exactly the same as you left it, so why strop it again? That just confused me a bit

I do stropping right after my shave. 30 web and 40 leather, also during the initial drying I will run it a few times on one side of an old T-shirt

As ya'll can tell by my member date, I'm new to the forum...and 'kinda' new to straight razoring.

I can tell you this from going to my Father's barber shop, when I was just a wee-lad. Every morning when he arrived at the shop, he would strop each of his razors a LOT. No, I didn't count, but it was a LOT. Then directly before each shave, he would strop it a bit. A bit being, maybe 15-20 passes. Even before the 1st customer, he would hit the strop 15-20 passes, even through he JUST did it before he unlocked the door and turn the 'pole' on. I'm sure it was more of habit than anything else. While the warm towel was on, he'd strop. Then lather, then shave. Never stropping during or after. But, ALWAYS before.

This was in the early '70's and his shop was near downtown and most of his customers were businessmen. Monday morning's, early morning's(5am-7am) were his busiest, from what I can remember, for shaves. Then they dwindled throughout the week, with Friday's the slowest for shaves, but busiest for non-businessmen (aka the Working Man) cuts. ((Dad said it was because the business men wanted to impress their bosses on Monday. Then started giving less a dang throughout the week. Whereas, the workin' man wanted to look right and tight for the weekend.)

So, I would 'assume' it would make no difference at all when the stropping happens. So long as it DOES happen. And as to if any 'damage' or anything else as to when to strop. I would say, there is none. Because, I can guarantee Dad's shaved more customers on Monday mornings than most of us will shave in 2 weeks worth. And, yes, he did have more than 1 razor, of course. Although, the 'main' blade for shaving was used on every customer that day. The bulk, if you will, with the smaller/thinner blades for trim work. But, the bulk of ones stubble was removed with the same blade (one of the 2 W&B's that are now in my bathroom.

After a shave, I rinse the razor in 91% rubbing alcohol, air dry, strop, then apply Ballistol.