Thread: Why so many laps on the Strop?

Experiment, did someone say experiment? yes that was me and as far as I'm concerned 60x provided the best result. Many have challenged the result of that experiment but no one has taken the challenge to repeat it? why not?

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

10 gets the job done just fine . . .10 before and 10 after might be even better.

which one is more, 30 before and 30 after, or 60 before?

Think about it.

Perhaps your conclusions are missing the point.

"Most razors are spoiled by too much stropping" (Maher and Grosh, 1922)

oh no i agree with you, a person can use minimal stropping and still get the edge they desire

when i think about it 30 before and 30 after is really just 60 before (30 strokes followed by 30 more a few hours later)

i'm not saying increased stropping is necessary to get the shaving edge, practical experience has proven this to me, but perhaps there is the possibility that increased stropping provides a benefit not immediately seen (assuming you don't mess up your edge in the process). maybe you can get an extra shave or two, who knows?

no one can really prove definitively one way or the other. there are too many variables

i personally don't know why increased stropping would make a difference (i mean once an edge is straight it can't get it any straighter) or why it might affect the life of a razor, but people have had experiences that beg the question.

so i remain at, you don't need to, but it MIGHT be a good idea...

I'm certain 150 before and 150 after would really make a big difference!

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Experiment, did someone say experiment? yes that was me and as far as I'm concerned 60x provided the best result. Many have challenged the result of that experiment but no one has taken the challenge to repeat it? why not?

Many people get better results without even experimenting, and a few of us remember how much pain you went through.

Don't forget also that the knifes used for meat are much coarser than a razor. And the steels are more aggressive than the strop. I worked in a butcher and witnessed the same thing. Every few minutes they would give a few strokes on the steel. When the knife hits a bone of cartilage it dulls slightly, but the edge I think only needs a quick polish to bring it back. If we used a steel on a razor i guess that it would act much faster than a strop, just not so fine.
This is just what I heard at the butcher, so it don't blame me if it is rubbish!

Originally Posted by edk442

when i think about it 30 before and 30 after is really just 60 before (30 strokes followed by 30 more a few hours later)

That's right if you ignore 'time'. However, many people strop after as part of a drying procedure. Which means the 30 after is definitely 'after' and not just a super-early 'before', if you catch my drift. (I.e. the 'after' having a different purpose to the 'before'.)

Others here have also argued that stropping more than 30 minutes before shaving will have a less beneficial effect. If there is truth in this then, again, 30 'after' and 30 'before' cannot count as 60 'before' since there's going to be at least 24 hours between each set of 30, which means the effect of the 30 'after' is negated by the time you start the 30 'before'.

OK, I'm stopping now because if I let the pedant in me continue typing, who knows what I'll end up saying!

Originally Posted by majurey

That's right if you ignore 'time'. However, many people strop after as part of a drying procedure. Which means the 30 after is definitely 'after' and not just a super-early 'before', if you catch my drift. (I.e. the 'after' having a different purpose to the 'before'.)

Others here have also argued that stropping more than 30 minutes before shaving will have a less beneficial effect. If there is truth in this then, again, 30 'after' and 30 'before' cannot count as 60 'before' since there's going to be at least 24 hours between each set of 30, which means the effect of the 30 'after' is negated by the time you start the 30 'before'.

OK, I'm stopping now because if I let the pedant in me continue typing, who knows what I'll end up saying!

Wow, I think my head just exploded...

I know I am chiming in very late, but proven results must stand as correct until new testing proves otherwise. 60 before or 30 pre/post shave laps seem to have produced the best results. The results are posted, and I have no evidence to prove them wrong.
Of course, there is the always the fact that stropping is only a chore for those not used to it. For the first year or so, I counted down laps, and couldn't wait to reach 0. Now, I just strop until I feel my lather starts drying up a tad. I re-lather and shave. Works like a charm!
Another point is that different razors need more/less passes than others.
Stropping a razor is how I "get the feel" of my razor before using it. Like stretching before a workout, or a jog.

My belief is that stropping on leather aligns the teeth on the fins. The more you do, the more likely you have aligned all the teeth and that they will stay where they are put - I think of it like brushing hair (not that I would know I dont have any hair lol)

Running a knife up a steel removes the burr that happens when you are doing heavy duty cutting. If you hit a bone or are cutting through very thick substances (meat for example), and even getting through to the chopping board underneath, will all cause the cutting edge to fold over and cause a burr. This needs to be removed aggressively revealing a new sharp (though not sharp by our standards of course) edge. You can only do this a handful of times before you need to resharpen though - hence your little sharpening man.

I may be horribly confused about what Stropping is and what a Steel is used for though - I am no expert - but the two actions are not the same at all in my book.

Si

I remember a conversation with a meat cutter years ago where he told me that the ideal edge characteristics were different for cutting beef and pork. If I remember, the beef edge was to be smoother and the pork edge needed to have bigger teeth and this was created by the steel used: the beef steel was smooth and the pork steel had been sanded to give it some tooth.

Perhaps this is somewhat germaine in that different types of beards may need different types of edge grooming for the best shave. I dunno; I'm still trying to figure out how to attempt a good hone. Stropping seemed to be pretty straight forward except when I read the recent comment about being able to "get the feel" of the razor by stropping. I for one can't discern any difference in feel on the leather from beginning of stropping to end of stropping.

the more I read, the less I know --Bruce