Thread: Re examining stropping technique!

dshaves,

Good on you for focusing your attention to such an important part of getting a straight razor truly shaving sharp!

By "burying the spine into the strop", what you are probably doing is getting good contact between the edge of the razor and the strop. Stropping with a little bit of slack and "burying the spine" will do that effectively, as will keeping the strop more taught and subtly "torquing" the edge into the strop. Or a combination of a little of each.

Most folks on this forum will "pooh-pooh" this, but stropping with the spine just barely touching the strop, or not touching the strop at all and with a very light touch will also work very well. (But I wouldn't advise a beginner to try that - I've been stropping blades of all kinds for over 30 years).

It's hard to describe the "feel" or if you will, the "feedback" one gets when a good combination has been achieved, but once you've "got it" - you've got it for life.

Enjoy,
Jeff