How many strokes to strop a razor?

[English]

Sometimes we don't explain the basics very well.

I just thought I would share my experience in using a strop.

Firstly, I think that stropping is probably more important than honing and we don't say that frequently enough.

My regular strop is a horse hide strop from Hand American. It is 3" wide and 28" long. It has no handle but a half stroke on the leather is a minimum of 24".

My razors after a shave do not have a "sticky" edge. After a successful stropping and before a shave, they do.

We all know about light strokes and holding the strop taught, but how many strokes does it take to get that sticky edge?

Well for me, it takes a minimum of fifty return strokes. I have found that speed does matter. If the blade moves quickly over the leather, I am sure the edge warms up and smooths out better. I'm not being scientific but just making an observation. If my strop was shorter, it would make little difference but I would need to increase the number of strokes.

I know when I have got things just right, because I see the nap on the leather changes shade as the blade flashes across it. Watching the leather nap is like watching the water movement as you hone a blade.

Does anybody else have some useful pointers or advice to share.

[JimmyHAD]

I have one of Tony;s linen/horse/latigo 2 1/2 wide strops and I do 50 on the linen 25 on the latigo and 25 on the horse pre-shave. Following the shave I do another dozen round trips on the horse. I'm not being scientific either. I read this post and began to use the routine above and it seems to work very well for me. Nine out of ten times a razor I strop this way will pass HHT after stropping.....if it is sharp enough to begin with.

[Cornelius]

I have no idea... on the instructions to Tony's beauty it says how to strop but not for how long. I do 20 laps on the linen, 20 on the latigo and 20 on the horsehide. Is that good?

[Lt.Arclight]

I usually do at least 10 laps on the linen and follow up with AT LEAST 25 laps on the latigo-usually 40-50 though.The QUALITY of the strop is very important too. With a Tony Miller strop-there are no worries and provided your technique is good,and you don't "roll" an edge-more laps can't hurt. At least IMO.

[hults]

20 on the cotton/linen followed by 30-50 on the leather (using a TM 3")

[dward]

60 laps on the leather. Don't use the linen side...

[Ben325e]

I'm not being scientific but just making an observation.

The two are inseparably connected. Your scientific process may only include making an observation, but that in itself is part of science.

That's like trying to take the peanut butter out of a PBJ and still have a PBJ.

OR WORSE!!! Taking the B out of a BLT.... yuck... who wants an LT sandwich? not me.

[Jimbo]

I do as many strokes as is necessary to get the edge where I need it to be.

James.

[Bruce]

Two-fiddy-six, two-fiddy-six, gimme a break.

Doncha no nuthin? It's eleventy-seven, eleventy-seven.

Goodness me!!!

[PuFFaH]

How long is a piece of string

PuFF