Thread: Does it matter WHEN you strop?

Does it matter when you strop relative to your shave?

Will the razor perform better if it is stropped immediately prior to the shave, or does it shave just as well if you strop the night before (or a week before, for that matter)?

I think it's really preference, but in the majority, I think we strop prior to shaving - my personal theory is that the edge oxidizes slightly over time, and is thus just slightly less sharper just after stropping.

That said, I strop both before shaving, and then again after (to make sure the bevel is free from moisture).

I've read of some who strop the night before with good results though - give it a try and see what you think - part of the great part of our hobby is our ability to experiment.

Best of luck,

Mark

I've been stropping the night before and getting good shaves from well honed razors.

I trust my stropping skills at 8pm better than at 4:45 am, but tomorrow I'll try the early morning strop. Who knows, maybe Tony will get to sell me another latigo.

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.

I thought one of the main benefits of using a straight razor is having a fresh edge each time you shave. That without having to always change the blade as with disposables.

Thus the purpose for stropping just before each shave.


Scott

Originally Posted by marosell

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.

I've heard this from lots of others before too.
Do you know anywhere where you can read about this phenomena from a metallurgical standpoint? Because many people pass this info on without actually knowing the scientific facts of it, they've just heard others saying it.
You having a metallurgical background certainly gives much more credibility to what you're saying, I'd love to read about it too.

Scott:

Fresh edge and new edge are two different things. stropping essentially re"freshens" the edge by realigning any parts of the honed edge that are misaligned. While it doesn't "sharpen", the edge will cut smoother. Ideally, you would just let the edge grow to its original form each time you shave. unfortunately that would take forever, as the edge will grow back at a reverse-exponential rate; it will reform a little, then just a little more, then just a little more.

Stropping goes ahead and finishes lining everything up because we can't wait forever until our next shave, with the expense of those frail pieces at the edge. But the longer you wait until you strop, the further back to its original shape the razor will grow, and you will be losing less metal over time.

^jalepeno:

Information on the effects of yielding steel and how it can be stressed to points of return (and no return) can be found in any material science book, but I bet I can find something on wikipedia about it in the sciences/fields area. I'm on my ipodtouch at the moment but I'll find something later and post it.

See the wikipedia pages titled: "Elasticity (Physics)" and "Shape Memory Alloy".

Originally Posted by marosell

See the wikipedia pages titled: "Elasticity (Physics)" and "Shape Memory Alloy".

The SMA article is about three specific alloies, and I doubt anyone has razors made of any of them. The SMA article also says development started in the 1930's which would be too recent for vintage razors (assuming most razors are older than that). Not much in the Elasticity (Physics) article either...

I'm also interested...seeing as I am a physics major. I've heard people mention the razor's shape memory, but never seen any hard info about it.

Originally Posted by marosell

See the wikipedia pages titled: "Elasticity (Physics)" and "Shape Memory Alloy".

I don't know what all them big words means but I strop before going to bed.
Ernest