Thread: Stropping post-shave?

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

I strop after the shave to clean the edge, but I don't think that it makes any difference in the quality of the next shave. IMO The pre-shave stropping is what is important for the shave.

+1

This is my practice and opinion also.

Jordan

Before and after. Always have. Reason.........uh........none.

Kind of sense of putting it up ready and clean...........I know.....makes no sense if I strop again before shaving.........habit..........

Have fun,

Lynn

Interesting sides here. I personally do, just because it feels a bit wrong to put the blade away without a bit of tlc afterwards!

I don't strop after my shave, but I will strop my razor
before honing to ensure that the bevel is smooth and
perfectly clean.

- Scott

I don't strop right after I shave. I just strop in the evenings before going to bed.
Ernest

Originally Posted by jnich67

+1

This is my practice and opinion also.

Jordan

+2

I don't think it matters whether you strop at the end or not. It all gets fixed up at the next shave prep.

But whatever trace oil or dressing is on the strop - it's comforting to imagine that coating the edge while is sits waiting for the next shave.

I Don't do it. I used to do it, and liked the idea of a little TLC before I put it away...but some direction by Dovo (as referenced above and available on this site) stropping after shaving might be a bad idea. The argument the author provided is convicing enough to give me enough doubt to not do it. And if you think about it the rational does make sense. The argument has two parts:

1) the author posits that the cutting edge has bent slightly (which I accept to be true) and that by setting it out overnight it will straighten itself out. I believe this will happen...imagine bending a paperclip or making a ball of tin foil...if you let it sit overnight the paperclip will become somewhat un-bent and the tin foil ball will loosen. Thus stropping is unnessesary.

2) The second part of the arguement assumed that stropping the slightly bent cutting edge is bad for the edge since stropping will contact the bent parts of the cutting edge in such a way that the bent parts will break off, deposit onto the strop, and turn the strop into "sandpaper." I have a hard time swallowing this since sometimes it is necessary to strop part-way through a shave. Nevertheless, this idea is scary enough to make me try to get all the way through the shave without re-stropping.

Google "Verhoeven knife sharpening experiments" and take a look at the edges under the magnification of an electron microscope. I'm hard pressed to see any "teeth" on the nicely prepared straight razors. I don't think there is anything to 'break off' if one strops after the shave. I strop afterward for the same reason mentioned by several already - to clean the blade of any moisture which can aid corrosion of the metal.

I don't know how the old folklore came into being, and I'm interested to understand why -- there may be some interesting underlying reason based on the materials science, but the evidence in Verhoeven's experiments is (in my opinion) definitive.

E