Thread: When to strop

Perhaps this should be in the newbie forum -- but I'm wondering whether it's necessary to strop right before shaving, or whether it's ok to strop the blade the night before (or days before), to minimize the number of things to do, and items to spread on the counter, on my first few shaves. I understand I should strop before every shave, I'm just wondering whether that means RIGHT before each shave, or simply BETWEEN shaves. As a newbie, it might be nice to focus on one thing (such as stropping the night before, or shaving in the am) at a time.

Don't think it matters. You can do it whenever. I frequently strop before I shower and then shave after to avoid dropping the razor.

I wouldn't recommend stropping it and letting it sit for weeks, but the night before is fine.

I'd just try it both ways and use whatever worked best for me. In fact, I will try it now. Thanks for the idea!

OK, now I'm curious...what can possibly happen to a blade that just sits for weeks unused, for weeks without use or honing? How come you couldn't just pick it up and use it?

YSD,

The only down side I can think of is nearly invisible corrosion which may, may, adversely affect the shaving edge and which can probably be polished away with an easy strop. Or it may matter not. Then again, it can't hurt to strop it again after the razor's been parked for a while.

So, we gotta six and we gotta half a dozen. My vote is on six. Then again, I voted on the group buy soap at least a half dozen times and there nobody's winning.

Originally Posted by YesSheDoes!

OK, now I'm curious...what can possibly happen to a blade that just sits for weeks unused, for weeks without use or honing? How come you couldn't just pick it up and use it?

As mentioned, corrosion at a microscopic level. But, more than that, I would be wary of extended thermal cycling. Your house is warm in the day and colder at night, I would think after a dozen cycles like this, your blade could become warped, albeit in a very minute way. But then again, the blade doesn't have to be off by very far to shave in a nonoptimal fashion.

I think there was an experiment last year about the effects of stropping and time. Can't seem to find it, but I think I recall Alan did it?

Anyway, the opinion was that you should strop just before a shave. The realignment of the edge which you get from stropping decreases over time and is discernable overnight.

Cheers
M.

Originally Posted by YesSheDoes!

OK, now I'm curious...what can possibly happen to a blade that just sits for weeks unused, for weeks without use or honing? How come you couldn't just pick it up and use it?

I distinctly recall someone posting something very similar to this and that it is actually beneficial if you have enough razors to allow a "rest" period.

The reason for the benefit was that the edge will develop microsocpic rust (as mentioned previously) and is quite normal. After taking the razor out of service, the micro-rust sets up and is then remove by stropping before it is used again. The original discussion was that this "rest" for the blade allowed for (I guess) a uniform edge to be formed and gently removed by the strop.

Just my recollections from before SRPGC-08 (Great Crash of '08).

Allen