Newbie Stropping Vid

This is my first upload to YouTube. Please let me know your opinions on my stropping abilities. No comments on my Saturday evening, stay at home clothing. ha.
https://youtu.be/Y0QDdPcwzHc

Very smooth, consistent strokes with your stropping. Strop is held taught but not overly so. I believe you are off to great start that will help keep your strops free of nicks.

Looking good thee my friend

Looks Great, Next time dont talk so much, Ha, Ty

Attachment 256923



STAYIN ALIVE....STAYIN ALIVE...AH AH AH AH ....STAYING ALIVEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Ya now thats what i,m talkin, about,:o ty Jerry the new internet sensation, Ty

New is right. Well, glad to hear im doing this correctly. Or there abouts. Thanks guys. I know that my looks are top notch and i didnt want to make everyone jellous so i dressed down. Thats my story and im sticking to it. Ha.

Pressure and tautness look good.

Hold the razor from the corners of the tang, so that the corners are in the middle of the thumb and the opposite corner on the first finger.

Then flip the razor, by moving the thumb, like flipping a switch and not moving the whole hand. The wrist stays stationary and you prevent slamming the razor edge, into the strop, damaging the razor or the edge.

The real edge of a razor, the part we don’t see, is very fragile.

You might slow down a little and stop for a fraction, then flip.

You also might try looping a shoe lace, or piece of para cord, (20 inches) on the loop and around the doorknob, to put the strop at waist height and a more even pressure stroke. Strop with the door open.

I've tried that flip/hold of the razor but it didn't feel as solid in my hand. I'll work on it some more. As you say, it will be easier on the edge. Thanks for pointing this out. I do have about 1 foot higher mounting of my strops. I could move them down and try some more. Anything that will help i'll give a try. Thanks!

Your stropping looks spot on.
The attachment point looks a little bit high. It might be constricting your arm movement and making you lift your arm and shoulder a little so you are not able to move your arm as freely as you could if it was hanging naturally a little lower.
If you want to lower the attachment point of the strop, zip tie a key ring to a doorknob around the narrow part behind the knob. On the door in my house this keeps the strop almost level.

The coolest part of the video was watching you strop left handed!

Keep up the great work.

Pete <:-}

Tha ks for the replies. Im working on the flipping/holding by the edges. I was going away from me with thumb and finger on corners of the tang but when coming toward me i had a finger on the side of tang and i can see this would give more dawnward pressure. So im trying to learn how to keep fingers on the corners of the tang. I have also lowered the attachment point on the wall. Went with door knob heigth. Also mounted it with a toggle bolt enstead of a cup hook in the drywall. I could see the cup hook wasnt going to last long in the drywall.

Thanks for the comments. I do feel better about my stropping now. Knowing im going about it the right way is a good thing. Now if i can get my honing skills figured out. As i said before and will keep saying, its just sharpening steel. And what i now know, Just very very fine sharpening. A lot harder than it looks to be but i'll get it. I dont give up easy!

These vids show it perfectly. Good luck with getting the flip.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-video.html

I seen that vid. And i notice his thumb on the towards him stroke is on top or on the side of the tang and that could cause downward pressure. Didnt think this was a good thing.

Nice video, nice even pace. Good work

If you lower your wrist, so it is more in line with the razor, you will not have the pressure problem.

Try to use, just enough pressure to keep the razor flat, on the strop.

In the video, the stropping looks a bit awkward, because he is holding a paddle strop in midair.

It would probably look more relaxed with a hanging strop or the paddle on a flat surface.

With this technique, the only thing moving, at the flip, is the thumb. The concern is the pressure at the flip, slamming on the strop. You can control the torque on the razor with the thumb.

There goes another llama. Hard to go wrong with good leather like Kanayama's.. Looks great.

Only thing I'd suggest is to hold onto both the leather and the cloth strops together, which can help reduce sagging.