Thread: Fewer stropping laps

I do 25 linen and 50 leather after a shave and repeat before a shave. I strop slow, caressing the blade with the leather. After the shave stropping is to help dry the blade, before the shave is to try to remove any oxidation that has formed.

"Caressing the blade with the leather" -- poetic!

This subject has been discussed a zillion times here over the years. The general consensus for most folks 60 laps is the way to go. Of course like anything else some folks have their own technique which can go 180 degrees out from the norm and they get great results.

So, 60 is a good start point and if YOU get better results with more or less then that's your ticket.

Originally Posted by STF

I do 15 laps on cotton and 40 on leather after a sjave and then 80 on leather before a shave.

I wish it only took seconds like Gasman says but if I go too fast I end up getting confused and either hearing that sound, I'm sure you remember the the oh oh that didn't sound good experience or cutting my strop. 80 laps takes me about 2 minutes I guess and I have to say, it makes my thumb hurt on the tang when I flip the razor and makes my wrist ache with the flipping. Sometimes i have to stop after 40 for a few seconds.

I reckon my technique needs improving, but my edges are good for a long time so I must be doing the actual stropping OK.

The longer you take the more time your lather has to soften the whiskers.

I used to do endless stropping as in 75-100 on linen and double that on leather then after about a year I cut that in half and here we are many years later all I do is 15-20 on linen and 20-25 on leather and it seems to work for my needs.

Most stops I have are glassy and I’m a heavy handed stropper so I use what most would consider to much pressure and I have always done that as I was never in the camp of super light pressure but hey if what you currently do works then stick with it but don’t be afraid to try something different.

I find that a reasonable stropping before and after the shave keeps them going a good long while.
I strop about like Jnatcat above before the shave. About same after. Laps. Not strokes!

Something that I've been wondering for a while is how we know we've done enough laps.

So we have Howard Schechter saying 10 or fewer is plenty; most of us do more that than, and some do considerably more.

How do we come up with our stropping strategy? Is there some feedback you get during the stropping operation itself that tells you you're done? If so, I haven't noticed it.

The way to tell is always how the razor shaves. If your razor is right to start with, then strop and shave, how many laps will be how good you are. If you are really good at stropping you can improve an edge, may only take a few. The one thing that is certain is if your doing it right you can’t over strop.

Since I strop before and after the shave I can usually pick one up and shave much later if I want to.
Still, I usually strop before the shave.

When it starts to not shave well, for me the slightest tug, I add a few laps on linen 10-20, then 5-10 on leather.

If it does not improve, then look at the edge with magnification or lightly run a Q-tip on the edge. If I see large chips it needs to go back to the stones. If micro chipped, more linen, aggressive strops or pasted strops followed by linen and leather.

There is definitely a strop progression in both linen and leather, you just have to test to find what works for you.

If you are new to stropping, slow down and practice your flip and lighten downward pressure. The flip and pressure are frequent causes of damage to an edge, or strop is contaminated.