Thread: 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.

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.

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..



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

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

Originally Posted by singlewedge

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

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.