Thread: Stropping Strategy

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The fore mentioned barber manual says that when coming off the hone go straight to the leather. Only use the linen first when stropping for maintenance in between honings. I haven't been doing that but have been going to the linen first anyhow. Any thoughts on whether going to the leather only following honing would be better ?

Most sources I read, consider stropping as needed to realign the very edge. (let's call it the "fin") According to those sources, ideally the fin is fully restored by the strop. But often small parts of the fin were knocked to far out by the shave, and the razor may loose them during stropping. If they get stuck into the surface of the leather, they can cause scratches and damage. The linen's structure has more depth and steel particles are safely embedded below the surface.
Immediately after a honing job, there's no risk for loosing parts of the fin, so there's no reason for the linen.
I believe this represents the traditional vision on stropping. I don't know if it is completely valid, but I have seen pictures posted on SRP of "inexplicable" scratches caused by a leather strop.

Bart.