Thread: Passes on the strop

Was just wondering the other day why some of the members strop so many times (>50 times or so). Is there any real advantage than just doing like 30 passes (after using the canvas)?

The advantage for many is better shaves. Try it both ways for yourself and see what works for you. If I'm in a great rush, I might only do 20 round trips but I usually do 20 on linen and then 50 to 60 on leather.

20 on canvas - 30 on leather.Unless I'm using a freshly honed blade then I'll up it considerably 50 on canvas- 100 on leather.

I think it really depends on the razor, as well as how it was honed.

If you spend a ton of time on a CrOx laden balsa strop before shaving, will leave the blade in a different condition coming directly off an 8K norton.

Provided your technique is CORRECT- and that is crucial- I don't see a disadvantage in extra stropping. I also believe that WHAT type of strop used is another factor. Tony Miller makes an exceptional product-there are other options,but in my experience, on a latigo strop-the more the better the shave

Remember,its only REFINING the edge-unless poor technique deforms the edge, the STROP is your FRIEND.

i usually strop 50-75 times on leather i very rarley use the linen it dont seem to do that much in my experience so far

I was stropping 10/20 linen/leather. I decided to try 25/50 after all I had read here. I noticed a vast improvement.

Dave

First off yes I agree with the above 25 linen and 50 leather everyday keeps the hone away

But I have to tell a story too...

During the NC meet up last summer, the discussion of stropping came up, and of course all the old hands said 50 laps minimum on the leather... The looks on most of the new guys faces was classic, to them, that was a major investment of time and energy, when you are new those 50-75 laps is a lot of work, but in 6 months it will take 30 seconds, as your stropping technique and speed increases.... just thought I would share that...

I've settled on 60 laps on leather.

another thing to consider that influences how many passes to do is how much draw the strop has, I have a cheap horsehide strop with no hardware on it that I use for travel it has very very little draw so I will do 100 or more passes on it easily to get the same end result if I was using my TM red latigo strop which I most likely would not do that many at least not on the leather,

of course if you only have 1 strop you don't have anything to compare it to, I am sure at some point no more is accomplished but if your stropping technique is good it won't hurt to do a few extra passes, what worked for me is I doubled the amount of passes I typically did and felt an immediate improvement in shave smoothness and gradually increased by about 10 passes until I found the average sweet spot for each strop

I do 10 canvas and (+)100 on leather..I found that more strokes on the leather gave better results, at least on my LeGrelot. As far as I know you can't strop too much, please correct me if I'm wrong.