Thread: Stropping on paper/newsprint

I've heard that stropping on newsprint or paper can help to touch up a slightly dulling edge, it this true? I've tried it on my very cheap razor and it certainly makes the edge shiney but will it do any harm? Also, is it doing anything that the linnen strop (with white paste) isn't?

it works but i've heard that it's so slow that it's only really useful on a blade that is already shave ready. seems redundant.

I don't know anything about the qualities of white paste. How fine is it?

Not sure of the exact grain of the paste but it's the standard stuff that goes on the linnen side of an every day strop. Can't imagine it's very abrasive at all.

I'm a fan of newsprint thought others mock me for it.

It is very slow - sometimes razors keep improving over hundreds of laps. Don't get careless however - you can overhone with newsprint in as little as 50 laps. If you've got a lot of time on your hands, are particularly cheap, or have a razor that is already shave-ready (preferably honed up to at least 0.5 micron abrasive) then it will help smooth out the edge even more. On some razors it also makes them sharper, but on some it makes them duller. Most (but not all) of my vintage sheffield steel razors get smoother but duller , while most (but not all) of my solingen and american razors get smoother and sharper . You can speed up the newsprint by making sure there's lots of dense text on the page (classifieds or a big B/W photo work well).

I've also been playing with using newsprint as a substrate for pastes and like it in that role as well. When the pastes wear out, just tear off the old newspaper and tape a new piece on and smear a very small amount of paste on the surface. This way there's no paste buildup on the paddle, making it easy to keep the bare minimum of paste on the surface for better edges.

some of the senior members recently suggested that I do the newspaper stropping but I think it is more of a final final final polish. Anything more than that, it sounds like I'd be stropping on newspaper for a couple of months straight.

Anywho, I'm fixing to try the newspaper trick so hopefully it works out.

Well I did 50 laps on news print with each of my razors. The old Solingen one didn't seem too different when I used it yesterday. However, my Dovo favorit was incredible this morning - 2 passes WTG and a very close clean shave, even BBS in places.

So are you doing this instead of using an actual Strop? I have never heard of this, where did you find this info out? I have been out of it for a bit but I find this intriguing if this would work.

Maybe then you would not need a strop when doing short business trips.

I've never tried it for daily stropping, and I suspect it would overhone the razor within a few days or a week. It's slow, but 40-50 laps/day will add up in a hurry...

Newsprint is an automobile detailer's trick for polishing the windows. From what I've gathered from Lynn, around these parts Robert Williams was an early advocate of using newsprint for razors.

I use it in addition to normal stropping before the shave.

How important is it to keep the newspaper flat?