Thread: Does it matter WHEN you strop?

I read a bit of documentation on the DOVO website, but I can't remember where. They recommend you strop their razors before shaving. The things I read there (and my background in metallurgy) bring me to the following conclusions:

After you shave, the edge can be slightly frail from use, much like how an edge can be too frail from over honing.

If you leave the edge alone until the next time you shave, you give the steel the ability to "grow" back to it's original shape (the shape it was last honed into). Throughout your shave, the metal changes ever so slightly, on a molecular level, but when left alone, it will try to recover to retain it's original shape. Material science 101 baby, as long as the steel doesn't pass it's yielding stress, it retains it's shape.

Waiting to strop before your next shave gives it time to do so.

Stropping afterwards can remove some metal from the edge, essentially breaking off those frail parts that haven't had a chance to "regrow". Not too much to be worried about, but on a microscopic level it may remove more metal then stropping before your shave.

Honestly, it may not matter much, and most say it doesn't. But I do think you'll get more shaves before your next hone if you strop before instead of after. I'm definitely not an expert on razors, but I do know a lot about metals and the science above makes a lot of sense to me.