Thread: Stropping Speed Experiment

Josh,

I missed your measurement. Ever try to strop while looking at a stopwatch?

Anyway I did it twice and came up with 92 laps in a minute, fast. So thats only a lap and a half a second. BTW I would estimate my normal stropping pace at around 70 laps a minute. It occured to me that many shavers might find that datapoint interesting.

Well so far I've been doing 1 lap every 3-5 seconds on the slow stropping shaves. I've got a shower timer that beeps after a set number of minutes - I'll set that up when I move on the faster speeds and let you know how average laps per minute pan out.

I was planning on going to moderate speed stropping first though (like 1 lap per second or second-and-a-half). I thought I'd do that as it's more likely the speed that newer users get to after a few months - you know, to see how the shaves are at a more "average" stropping rate.

James.

Guys

This is really informative. I've always wondered about slow vs. fast. Thanks, and keep it coming!

Cheers
M.

Today's shave was ok again. Smooth but not great cutting ability but I took my time and got a nice shave. Stropping fast does a good job creating a nice draw.

Tomorrow I think I strop slowly and see how that goes.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but I took the day off shaving - mainly because I had been in contact with a cat on Friday (I'm mildly allergic to cats) and had a rash on my neck and cheeks that I wanted to let die down before attempting to shave again.

Final slow stropping shave this morning. I did a timed count - I've been doing somewhere between 15 and 20 return trips per minute for the my slow stropping, on average.

Again, not good shaves on either face or head. Very noticeable pulling, what with an extra day's stubble to contend with. Scything motion helped, but not by much. Razor burn on neck and cheeks, and a couple of spots of blood on the neck (both sides, where my beard grows in spirals). Definitely the worst shave of the "slow stropping" set. If I had to rate the shave, 3-4 out of 10.

Overall impressions: Increasing pulling as time went on. Immediate reduction in smoothness from day one, but hard to tell if it got worse over time or not. Not smooth is not smooth, I guess. I feel that the slow stropping definitely leads to poor shaves, which steadily decline the longer you do it. For me there was no plateau in shave quality, although 4 shaves is probably not long enough to really tell.

I'll go up to moderate stropping speed tomorrow. I'm intending to try for a steady 60 laps per minute for these ones. I'm thinking that's about the speed I was doing after a few months of using straights, so it might be apropos to newer-ish users

James.

This thread has opened my eyes to the importance of correct stropping. I just went and heated my strop with a few rubs of the palm and gave a few of my razors a good 50 fast passes each way. Now i know what sharp is! Sheesh, all this time I've been blaming my razor burn on my inexperienced technique!!

Thanks for the sacrifices guys. It will hopefully make all the difference to my next shave!

I had an interesting shave today using slow stropping (after the fast stropping I've been doing). I got a pretty decent shave stropping slowly (2 seconds per pass). The shave was pretty nice. By the time I got to the left side though the razor would have been in need of more stropping. I didn't do more stropping as I'm doing this experiment but the left side got some irritation and some missed spots.

Still overall a good shave for today. I'd rate it a 5 out of 10.

First medium speed stropping shave this morning. I tried to maintain 1 return trip per second for these. 30 laps.

The shave felt better than the last slow stropped one. Just a little bit of irritation on the left side of the neck. Shave was smoother, but not as smooth as it can be. Got a semi-decent ATG pass too. Not quite BBS but fairly close. Probably 6/10.

Razor felt better on the strop too at this faster speed. I could feel the draw and hear the tell-tale sound of the edge being worked. Which makes me think that what Bigspendur and Joe suggested re going at an unnatural speed might have been occurring with my slow stropping experiments. I still think I was getting the edge on the slow stropping shaves, but those physical cues weren't present and so any slight adjustments you may make from the feedback probably weren't made.

James.

Todays shave was ok, a little less than yesterday. Some light irritation on the left side but nothing to worry about. I can tell it is slightly worse than yesterday but only barely. I'm still getting decent draw now despite the slow stropping. I would rate it a 5 out of 10.

I'm still capable of going against the grain on my neck with this edge it just seems to lack the pristene sharpness and smoothness I'm used to.

Only did my head this morning. It was an OK shave - small amount of pulling, no blood, no missed or rough spots, and no burn anywhere that I could see. 6-7/10.

This particular razor I'm using for my head (Blue Wonder Barber's Special, full hollow 5/8) seems to have responded quicker to the increased stropping speed in giving a smoother edge. Although my face skin is more sensitive than my head skin, there's definitely a noticeable improvement.

James.