Thread: How many...and what time

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I focus more on the quality of the stropping vs any concern over the quantity of passes.

Agreed. When I focus on the quality (right contact, evenness, slow enough to be good,...) I have much better results than when I'm counting. That said, I'd guess most times I do less than 20 strokes and I'm good.

I know this goes counter to some posted opinions, but I've had no problems stropping the night before. Sometimes I do that just to streamline my morning routine ...and because I can take my time and practice stropping right the night before. I did that more when I was religiously following some of the patterns of others and counting my way up to dozens of strokes...only to have bad results because I was counting more than focusing on technique. It took me a lot longer to finally get a reasonable edge. When I take my time and focus on quality, I'm actually done sooner. Still, I sometimes will strop the night before, just because of the simple pleasure of it.

- Dale

poona,

I find myself in the same situation as you: my lather dries much too quickly. If I strop before lathering up, I can almost finish one go-round before re-badgering the arid regions. If I lather before stropping, I have to re-lather before shaving. One of these days I'll have to try to figure out what I'm doing that enables me to whip up dry suds. In the meanwhile I'll continue to re-suds about half way through the routine.

Bruce

Originally Posted by Bruce

poona,

I find myself in the same situation as you: my lather dries much too quickly. If I strop before lathering up, I can almost finish one go-round before re-badgering the arid regions. If I lather before stropping, I have to re-lather before shaving. One of these days I'll have to try to figure out what I'm doing that enables me to whip up dry suds. In the meanwhile I'll continue to re-suds about half way through the routine.

Bruce

Assuming that you are using a quality soap or cream... there are a few factors to consider
the amount of water in the mix... try a little more
the temperature of the water... the hotter the water the quicker it will evaperate and dry the lather... try cooler water
the humidity in you bathroom... if you have just showered there should be plenty... if you are in an arid area and only using hot towels... more water in the mix
time... i often lather then strop then wipe my face and relather before shaving

try adjusting the above steps and see if the experience improves.

I do 30 on the linen and 40 on the leather , before each shave . On a freshly honed razor , I do 60 on the linen and 80 on the leather . Of course , I'm still a noob so these numbers could change in the future but for now this works for me .

-After honing I do 60-80 only on the leather
-before shaving a pre shaved razor, 10-15 on linen and 30-40 on leather
-After shaving, 3-4 only on linen

Yannis

Originally Posted by syslight

Assuming that you are using a quality soap or cream... there are a few factors to consider
the amount of water in the mix... try a little more
the temperature of the water... the hotter the water the quicker it will evaperate and dry the lather... try cooler water
the humidity in you bathroom... if you have just showered there should be plenty... if you are in an arid area and only using hot towels... more water in the mix
time... i often lather then strop then wipe my face and relather before shaving

try adjusting the above steps and see if the experience improves.

Note that too much water will funnily enough have about the same effect as too little water. Lots of water will make the lather dissapear rether quickly.