Thread: Stropping vid

Yea, you've got to hit the right rythm. I usually do around 60 a minute too. No reason at all to go 90, but it works well for him. I think that the barber vid has way too much deflection for me, though he has that neat wave we talked about where the strop almost lifts with the blade.

I think a lot of guys change the way they strop after the first few months, and consequently, I wonder how many newbies get poor shaves just based on not understanding the purpose or dynamics of stropping.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Yea, you've got to hit the right rythm. I usually do around 60 a minute too. No reason at all to go 90, but it works well for him. I think that the barber vid has way too much deflection for me, though he has that neat wave we talked about where the strop almost lifts with the blade.

I think a lot of guys change the way they strop after the first few months, and consequently, I wonder how many newbies get poor shaves just based on not understanding the purpose or dynamics of stropping.

*raises hand* Me.

Before my SRP stropping education, I thought that a few passes down a small piece of leather were all that was really necessary, as I wasn't doing anything more than lightly polishing the blade. Pfffft.. yeah, right.

I now understand why my shave quality degrades so rapidly; guys that are trying to get good stropping results using nothing more than a paddle strop are trying to put out a volcano with an eye dropper. It has become readily apparent that an untreated (by that I mean no abrasive pastes. It should be properly treated for correct "draw"), small leather paddle strop is not really meant to be one's only stropping solution. Maybe a hold-over for a few day's on the road, but certainly not for day to day use.

Using just the paddle strop, I spend at least fifteen minutes per day stropping to get half way decent results.

I'm sure you were probably thinking more along the lines of new guys that get themselves proper strops from the beginning, AFDavis, but I thought I'd plug my 2 cents worth in here in case there's a newb out there trying to cut a budget like I was and go skimpy on the strop.

Yes, it's possible to get good results on a small paddle strop, you just have to pack a lunch to do it.

I think you need to differentiate the pressure on the spine and on the razor edge.

How much pressure?

The pressure on the spine needs to tension the leather strop.

The pressure on the following edge needs to be enough to brush the leather nap smoothly.

So depending on how tightly you hold the strop, the more or less spine pressure will be needed. The blade is then effectively held at an angle that lets the edge brush the leather nap. As you go through the stropping, it's actually best to lighten the brushing action. Same as with honing.

You know when you have it stropping correctly, not by the sound particularly, but by watching the nap on the leather change shade as the edge brushes the nap. Its a bit like watching the water movement on a hone.

Watch the nap reflection on the strop as the razor edge passes over it.

I think that horse hide is the best strop because the nap is the finest. Its again a bit like the grit on a hone. The blade passes more quickly over a finer strop and some do not like the lack of resistance. They prefer to feel a pull. Cow hide does this better than horse hide, but it is not as fine a nap. Finally a really rough nap is on the canvas/cotton or linen which does something to the edge, but to be honest, I d'ont know what it is. I think it just cleans any oxidation off the blade before hitting the leather and thereby stops the leather getting dirty as quickly.

You can clearly see the nap changing shade on Seraphim's superb horse hide strop in his excellent video.

It took me a few weeks of showing love to my strop before it began to drag nicely with the lightest touch. I used Lynn's excellent advice about smoothing the strop with my palms every day. My strop is Illinois 835 cow hide.

Watch the slow motion downstroke in the barbershop video at 21 thru 24 seconds. Doesn't it look like the spine is lifted? That would be a disaster for me, but somehow this guy seems to know what he's doing.

I disagree that Liam's technique is perfect. In slow-mo, you can clearly see that on his "Away" stroke he is lifting the spine considereably!






On my vid, I didn't do any slow-mo, so you guys couldn't critique me!

Originally Posted by English

I think you need to differentiate the pressure on the spine and on the razor edge.

How much pressure?

The pressure on the spine needs to tension the leather strop.

The pressure on the following edge needs to be enough to brush the leather nap smoothly.

So depending on how tightly you hold the strop, the more or less spine pressure will be needed. The blade is then effectively held at an angle that lets the edge brush the leather nap. As you go through the stropping, it's actually best to lighten the brushing action. Same as with honing.

You know when you have it stropping correctly, not by the sound particularly, but by watching the nap on the leather change shade as the edge brushes the nap. Its a bit like watching the water movement on a hone.

Watch the nap reflection on the strop as the razor edge passes over it.

I think that horse hide is the best strop because the nap is the finest. Its again a bit like the grit on a hone. The blade passes more quickly over a finer strop and some do not like the lack of resistance. They prefer to feel a pull. Cow hide does this better than horse hide, but it is not as fine a nap. Finally a really rough nap is on the canvas/cotton or linen which does something to the edge, but to be honest, I d'ont know what it is. I think it just cleans any oxidation off the blade before hitting the leather and thereby stops the leather getting dirty as quickly.

You can clearly see the nap changing shade on Seraphim's superb horse hide strop in his excellent video.

It should be noted that this strop was modified for "extra nap" buy rubbing it with 600 grit sandpaper. I couldn't get the groove with the ultrasmooth horsehide with zero draw. By buffing it (a tip of the hat to Mr. Miller), it now has appreciable draw, although nowhere near the realm of the latigo strops.

Also, to be able to see the nap change you have to choose to watch the vid in high definition.

Very nice ! Kinda scary too, I'm glad you didn't have anyone tied up in the backround.....

Just kidding my friend, nice technique