Thread: Learning to strop

Where you position yourself to the strop may be a helpful personal experiment to try out too. Rather you are parallel to the strop or standing at the bottom of the strop or at an angle to the strop could help you find the best position that fits your wrist and hand movement for better control...

In starting out, I used the fingertips only, pencil-roll flip, keeping the wrist fixed. This lead to unexplained nicks along the edge of my strop from time to time. Then, after a brief exchange with a member on another forum at the time, and who has sadly passed away (Jerry, mrsell63, RIP), he encouraged me to grip the shank (tang) more diagonally and make a slight turn of the wrist during the flip. Following his recommendations, I have yet to nick or cut a strop since, as I am more in control; whereas with the pencil-roll flip, the strop is in charge.

Linked is one of Sham's videos, which is similar to my stropping method. The only significant differences I have with it are that I hold both elements at the same time, preferring a barber's square-end cut, and that I start at the top rather than at the bottom as shown.