Thread: Anti-Strop

I've been having a strange issue the last few days. My strop seems to be actively taking away my razors edge. I haven't had this problem before, and I don't think I've changed my technique at all.

I don't use any pastes, just a plain strop. It's got a few nicks in it, so it's not in tip top shape, but it's served well before. I just tried rubbing in some strop dressing and will try stropping tomorrow to see if that made a difference.

Does anyone have an idea of what might be going on?

Is it better or worse than when you don't strop at all?

Unless your strop is in terrible shape full of nicks and uneven areas and abrasions I'm afraid its not your strop that's taking away your edge. Its something you are doing. The question is what?

It's better if I don't strop.

As for my technique, I do a handful of passes on the linen side, then about 30-60 passes on the leather side. When I'm stropping, I hold the strop taunt, and move the razor in an x pattern. I try to put as little pressure on the razor as possible. I don't move too fast, so the razor isn't making any loud noises . Just a gentle swish, swish.

Stop using linen until the edge dulls more. What kind of strop and how did you last treat it?

It's an Illinois #127

I've been treating it with this stuff called
Fromm
#364 Strop Dressing

It seems to be just a leather conditioner. Last time I treated my strop was about two months ago. I haven't been shaving much, so I haven't been using my strop very much since then.

Try using a little hand rubbing to abrade away any buildup up and stay off the linen for a bit and let us know if that helps.

Well, I took your advise and after conditioning the strop, rubbed it down good and stayed away from the linen.

The strop is cleaning up my razors very well now. I think part of it easily could have been I was thinking too much about stropping while I was at it. I chilled out and just relaxed with the motion, and it seems to have helped.

Overall, I'm still not really sure what was going on, but all is well again. Thanks everybody!