Thread: Something just isn't clicking

Originally Posted by Marshal

So, I've watched every stropping video I can, but I'm still messing something up somewhere. I can take a perfectly shave worthy edge off a Swaty barber hone, and within 20 strokes on linen and 40 on leather make it tug and pull. For the life of me I cannot get the hang of this stropping thing. On the bright side, I'm not cutting the heck out of my strop.

Either I have a tension problem with the strop, or a pressure/torque problem with the razor. Or maybe a combination of the 2? I was tugging the strop pretty hard to keep it perfectly flat, but I've since come to realize that's probably not the right route and eased up considerably. Now I keep it taught, but allow it to flex some as I've seen in Lynn's videos.

I've also tried various pressure types on the blade. I'm sure I started out a little heavy handed. Applying slight torque to 'force' the edge against the strop just feels inherently wrong, like I'm probably rolling the edge. Lately I've settled on light pressure, like I use for finishing strokes, but that doesn't seem to be making head way either.

I guess my question is, how tight do you hold your strop, and for those of you who also hone your razors how much pressure do you use relative to honing strokes?

I skimmed through a couple of your posts and a few others and it sounds similar to things I have gone through. The first thing I can take from it is that I think you overestimated the power of the strop. I think if it is honed properly you would have to do a lot of bad stropping to ruin the edge.

I am a poor stropper with six years experience and I just have to accept it. Part of being clumsy for me. I can do everything else well, and like you I verify my hone jobs through the lens of a microscope.

I went through a period where I did a good hone job but my face was irritated by the shave. At first I re-honed the edge before I had an epiphany. My lather wasn't slick (wet) enough. With slicker, wetter lather, my edge was performing as expected and the shave was close and comfortable.

The variables make straight razor shaving fun, but in the beginning it's hard sometimes to figure out the reason you are having difficulty.

Another time I watched a YouTube shave just for the heck of it, and I realized that my shaving angle was off. I tried copying it and got a better shave. All of this stuff comes together with experience, except that for me, my stropping will always be sloppy.

I haven't had much problem stropping but when I got my second strop it was in real bad shape.
A Jager Barber Supply Shell horsehide 2 1/2" wide strop with a rough leather treated horsehide second strop. It had been used in a barber shop then hung in my friends wood shop for around 30 years. Can we say dried out?? First I cleaned it with some 409 & a Scotch Brite pad to get the big stuff off then used saddle soap to really clean the leather. I had just got some Ballistol to use on my straight's & knives & saw that it was good to use on leather. This stuff is Da'Bomb !! Treated the Jager with the Ballistol pretty heavy & let it set a day or so then treated it with just a light coating that I rubbed in by hand. That strop felt so nice & worked so well that I treated my Koken Shell horse hide strop the same way & all I can say is Ballistol works well on strops & all slick leather. Less is more & always remember that when treating a strop. I have used some Fromm strop dressing & it is good but the Ballistol is so much better I think & works so well on many things That I use Saddle soap & Ballistol to clean all my leather now.

Slawman

Ballistiol is good stuff. I use it on just about everything. When I cleaned my strop I did it with warm water and oxyclean to get the CrOx off the back of the linen. I used the same for leather because it's what I had on hand at the time, but I didn't soak the lrather like I did the linen. I just brushed it on the surface and scrubbed it a bit before rinsing it off and drying it. Then I put some shave lather on as a conditioner.

I've gotten saddle soap since, so from now on I'll probably use that for cleaning. It's probably a little passed due for that, but I haven't had the time or will power lol.

Sounds like a paddle strop would be the perfect thing for you

Hi everybody! This is my first post. I have noticed and I saw it on Scienceofsharp too, that linen can do some harm to the edge. The best use for linen, according to what I have been able to comprehend from theScienceofsharp blog, is for pasted strop. What you guys think? I personally do max three laps very light on linen just to clean the edge so I do not transfer unwanted material, wich is basically anything, to the leather

Been using linen in my stropping routine for years, no ill effects as a matter of a fact I notice a difference when I skipped it, and I didn't like it. So as Mythbusters would say, science of sharp,,,,, busted. Tc

“Hi everybody! This is my first post. I have noticed and I saw it on Scienceofsharp too, that linen can do some harm to the edge.”

Vortex, I am not getting that from the blog, in fact just the opposite.

From the, What does stropping do? SOS Blog.

One of the largest problems with stropping is that it can take so long to master for new guys. Linen is aggressive and one mis-stroke an edge can be ruined.

Break out some magnification and take a look at your bevel, before and after stropping. Then test it, shaving.

Welcome to the forum.

1) REALIGNING THE EDGE
Although a straight razor is made of hardened steel, the edge is flexible and malleable. Below is an example of a relatively large ‘ding’ in the edge. I received this blade from a custom razor maker with this defect and can only speculate as to the cause. The blade was stropped 50 laps on clean linen, 100 on clean horse leather and then 10 on clean linen (to remove residue from the leather). The same location on the blade was imaged, clearly showing the blades’ edge has been realigned.

Just recently I upped my strokes on linen post shave to 20 from 10 and I do 20 on linen then 80 to 100 on leather, upped from 60, before a shave. Seems to have given me smoother shaves. It is whatever works for you and you have to experiment to find out.

I have sprayed a hard felt hanging strop with Crox and do 10 to 20 laps, depending on how bad I think the edge has gotten, on it for touch ups when needed.

I am sure there is some science involved in what we do to get our razors sharp and the maintain them by stropping. For the most part I believe it is your technique and some experimentation that matters more.

Bob

I've never seen science of sharp say that linen is any kind of harmful. I do 20 laps on linen between hones just to clean away dwarf and burrs. 40 before a shave, another 20 after. Keeps the blade happy and shaving right, now that things have come together.

Only downfall to it is as Euclid says, until you get the technique right it's easy for a miss-stroke to ruin an edge. Paste can compound that problem.

Yep, same here. To me stropping with linen then leather is imperative to maintaining a razors edge. Try it yourself, see how long a razor lasts with leather only, then after refreshing use linen too. I bet it lasts longer using linen...

Oh yeah. Welcome to SRP!