Stropping one direction at a time

I'm a newbie at stropping and straight shaving in general.

While learining the technique I found it easier to strop in one direction at a time.

That is to say, pull the razor in one direction for one stroke, then instead of flipping on the spine and going back the other way, I lift the razor off the strop, go back to the start position and bring back down for another stroke.

Is it a bad idea to do, say, 10 strokes one way, 10 stokes the other way, then repeat as necessary?

Or is flipping the razor and doing conventional laps necessary?

Cheers.

I think it is better to do conventional laps, but it is probably not 100% necessary.

I have a theory that stropping is a bit like using an electrical degausser. It uses AC current to magnetize in one direction, then the other. As you move it slowly away from the object to be demagnetized, the reduced field strength means the object becomes magnetized by smaller and smaller amounts around the "zero point."

In a similar way, I think stropping bends the edge slightly past the straightest position. Then you flip it over and the edge bends back the opposite way. If you make the strokes lighter and lighter, the edge gets closer and closer to perfect straightness.

If my theory is right, then doing 10 strokes in the same direction will do little more than a single stroke, so is a waste of effort.

But it's just a theory, no real basis to it. :o

I’d agree with Ray most emphatically.

The one great thing about straight razor shaving is that you can develop what works best for you. I'm not going to disagree with our esteemed colleague, but strop the best way for you. The only real fundamental is the actual stropping technique. Ensure you do equal numbers of strokes in each direction. For me it's 20 laps on the linen followed by 60 laps on the leather. I use the tradional method, but that is works best for me. :gl:

If it works for you, you can stick with it, but I would venture to say that the more you get into that "wrong" routine, the harder it will be to learn to do it properly. I say go slowly doing it "right" and it will soon become locked into your muscle memory and you'll get faster and better. If you ever intend to learn to do it properly, I say start now, because there's no sense learning how to do it two ways, right and wrong.

I am one of those on the "it was done this way for a reason" side...

Actually the stropping action itself is rather easy to do, the only learning curve there really is comes in the flip... Once the flip is learned the rest is rather easy and speed builds quite fast, I just taught this to my Brother in Law in person two weeks ago, and the only part we had to truly work on was the mechanics of the flip, and how I was actually holding the razor to accomplish it... Hint; it is all in the edges of the tang, use the edges not the flats..


:OT
Ray that is a very interesting theory, and actually I think you might be on to something there.... My thinking is more along the change in angle as the razor is drawn and pushed....Time for another thread :D

I am not a flipper, I am a lifter. I stop at one end and lift and flip.

Partly cause flipping is how I ate my other strop up. So know I lift and flip.

Really the only, and I mean the only thing that matters is that you edge doesn't suffer.

If you start to notice that the shave quality starts to decline quickly. Try stropping slowly in the traditional manner and see what that gets you.

I have a microtome that I strap in one direction then the other, but that is because of its one sidedness.

I would suggest that you listen to the wiki on stropping. http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...zor_stropping#
hearing the rhythmic sound I find is a very beneficial tool to learning proper stropping technique. The way you describe may work but sounds at best inefficient. I must agree with Glen when he says there must be a reason "they" did it that way for so ling, it works.

the only thing i could see going wrong is that once you start to go faster the lifting and setting of the blade back onto the strop could cause you to put some undo pressure on the edge rather then the spine and inturn cause some problems. the reason i flip with the spine on the strop is so that i don't lift razor and come back down a little off and hit edge first. other then this i would say go for it. i tried it a while ago and figured i would get sloppy and mess things up so i made myself learn the traditional way.

also the traditional way is obviously going to much faster and more efficient, which i like.

whatever works right ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by singlewedge

I am not a flipper, I am a lifter. I stop at one end and lift and flip.

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In my case I couldn't get stropping right (but see note) until I really did roll the bade on the spine without lifting. My initial impulse was to lift the blade safely away from the strop at each end.

The real trick for me was the next step, to treat it like rolling the spine underneath instead of flipping the sharp edge over the top. This causes me to initiate the direction change with the spine leading and before the blade actually lays flat against the strop. Until I got the feel for that I nicked my (thankfully) practice strop quite badly as I tended to dig the blade in with each flip since the flip tended to be disconnected with the direction change and often completed too early (or the direction change started too late).

I hope I made that clear. Hard to describe these things in words.

I think if you stop, lift, flip, then restart you will never work up a proper rhythm and a rhythm is what's needed for consistency. And consustency is what's needed for perfection. :)

Note: I still have some ways to go before I get this really right! Still a bit of clumsiness. ;)

I started stopping in one direction because I was trying to get each stroke sound consistent. It was harder to do when flipping and going in both directions. But I've been practicing and I do it the traditional way now.

I did nick my strop quite a few times when lifting the blade off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcd

I started stopping in one direction because I was trying to get each stroke sound consistent. It was harder to do when flipping and going in both directions.

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Actually, as early experimentation to get the feel of things, I think that is quite a decent idea. I did that a few times myself. I was having trouble keeping the razor flat (tended to tip the toe end up in one direction and tip it down in the other). Working each direction individually helped me cure that.

With most things I would agree that you find your own way however with stropping I have to say there is only one way to do it and thats the classic way. In the end if you do it your way there is more of a chance you will roll the edge or hit the edge on the strop damaging the razor and the strop. Like with anything else bad habits are harder to unlearn.

In vast mahogany paneled rooms in stately, vine covered stone social clubs, well dressed elderly gentlemen sit on leather wing chairs near the walk-in fireplace sipping port as they argue with authoritarian bombast about the same things every saturday. One of the perennial battles is over the purpose and proper technique of stropping a straight razor. There is only one correct answer.

It will be helpful to understand the purpose and mechanics of stropping a razor before you design and develop your stropping technique. Stropping on canvas will remove material from the blade as will leather that has been "pasted" or treated with any abrasive compound (http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...-tutorial.html). The amount of steel these will remove is a function of the abrasive qualities of the canvas or the compound with which the leather has been treated. As JoshEarl very clearly demonstrated in the thread to which I linked above, you can treat a strop with a variety of abrasives, such as the 0.5 micron chromium oxide. 0.5 micron refers to the physical size of the grit in the compound. The compound can beany number of abrasives from natural crystals such as diamond or garnet to assorted carbides and oxides. The hardness of the comound is what determines what and for how long the abrasive will cut. The grit size determines how coarse the abrasive and is inversely proportional to the mesh size which is how we commonly grade abrasive products such as sandpaper. 220 sandpaper has a particle size approximately 67 microns while 0.5 micron chromium oxide makes the strop approximately equal to what would be 30,000 sandpaper. Here are some particle to mesh correlations: Mesh So you can make some very abrasive canvas or leather strops. They could be coarse enough to continue the honing process or fine enough to buff and polish out scratches. But for this discussion, let's assume you are stropping on plain leather.

Stropping on plain leather does not remove any material from the blade.Stropping accomplishes two (2) thngs. Those things are the same whether you are stropping a razor, a kitchen knife, carving tools or a plane iron:

1. Stropping will remove a burr (also known as a wire edge) left after sharpening on a stone. The strop does not abrade the burr away but will effectively "flick" or snap the burr off. For larger, tougher edges such as hand chisels, a wire edge can be removed by jamming the edge into a bit of wood. Obviously you don't want to do that with a straight razor so we use a strop. It is important to strop both sides of the edge with alternating passes so the burr can be removed as opposed to simply rolled onto one side and left attached.
2. Stropping will align the fine fibrous edge of the blade exactly the same as a sharpening steel for kitchen cutlery How to Use a Sharpening or Honing Steel The edge is malleable and will be rolled to one side if you don't strop uniformly on each side with alternating strokes. I am pretty serious about my kives and tools. Here is my kitchen cutlery: http://straightrazorpalace.com/what-...n-cutlery.html Every time I pick up a knife I take it to the steel. That is the same way it should be with your stropping. Every time I use a razor I take it to the strop for 40-60 laps. One lap = up (away from me) right side to the leather, down (toward me) left side to.

I hope some of this makes sense and is helpful.

Brad

I think you need to turn over the razor per each stroke, in order to (re)align the edge effectively.
Lifting the razor entirely off the strop holds a big risk for actually misaligning the edge, because it is easily done to lift the spine first.

There is a correct way to learn how to strop, that is very likely to pay off hugely once you master it. As much as I personally like to reinvent the wheel, to do so will never be a short cut to success.
If you want to experiment with alternative ways to strop, it's best to learn it the traditional way first.

Bart.