Thread: Stropping Speed Experiment

I took a break yesterday and today I shaved with another razor. I did my more traditional slap stropping, fast stropping etc. Today I'm going out for my B'day dinner and I'm not compromising on the qualilty of my shave. So there!

More tomorrow.

haha, happy Birthday, Alan

cheers,
Nenad

Yesterdays shave was alright, about a 5 or so. A little irriation and less cutting ability than normal. I was able to feel a few moments when I irritated my skin. Otherwise nothing to report. The razor has some decent draw to it. I did find it hard to strop slow. Once you equate speed with comfort its more difficult. But yesterdays shave was ok. Once again I got the sense that more stropping might be able to overcome some of the problems but I only stropped the spec'd 15/30, slow.

Well, the past few days with faster stropping have all been good. Probably 8 out of 10 for these shaves. Very little irritation and no pulling.

I'm fairly convinced that, for a given number of strokes, faster stropping is better than slower, but my limitations on the strop in terms of speed mean that I can only comment up to the 85 strokes per minute (spm) speed. Over that you're on your own.

The other day I was rubbing my strop with my hand and noticed that I was able to generate a fair bit of heat into the leather by going really hard and really fast (Duh). I think I'll try the 85spm stropping right after making the leather hot with my hand, and see what, if anything, that does to the shave.

James.

I'd just like to say thanks to the guys for subjecting themselves to the ordeal of shaving with blunt-ish razors. I've adjusted my stropping speed and, lo and behold, my face is smoother.
Many thanks.

Not a bad shave today. The razor didn't cut too well, but it did ok. Just a tad of irritation but generally pretty smooth. I skipped yesterday so I had a little softer beard today. If I have to strop slowly, I do like the linen first. Nothing noteworthy in todays shave really. I was still able to go against the grain a little and I have yet to really sense a significant drop in performance. Any drop that is occuring is very slow and moderate. I did note a need to use a very disciplined shaving angle also.

I would judge todays shave a 6 out of 10.

I am still able to sense the difficulty in obtaining draw with slow stropping though. Its obtainable, but more challenging to achieve.

Tomorrow I will use linen fast and see if I can sense any improvements.

This mornings shave was excellent. Overall quality of the edge improved with increased speed. You can get a real sense of the light touch you can use if you add speed to the process. The linen seems to add more draw to the edge. I was able to go against the grain with only a small amount of pull and the edge had a strange smoothness to it, like it wasn't really even sharp, yet it obliterated the whiskers. This would have to be one of the better straight shaves ever. Its about 10 hours after the shave now and my face is still smooth, BBS, and irritation free. I'll rate it a 9+ out of 10.

Another great shave today, no issues or problems. No unusual observations. I'd rate it about an 8+ out of 10. Its about 10 hours later and I'm still near BBS (but not BBS) despite not going against the grain when shaving.

I think there is a point of mid-speed stropping that is very effective but I haven't found it yet. It still seems strop draw is a good indicator of a shaving edge and stickiness is following all stropping at speed.

Sometimes reviving a dead thread is a good thing.