Old-school stropping vs modern stropping.

First of all, I almost posted this in the newbie forum, because it's that kind of question, but I was afraid it would be a confusing topic for true newbies.


Anyway, there have been a lot of comments from new members who looked at other sources, and some older texts that have been referenced by several members lately, including one that talked about using graphite on your regular strop, and this makes me as a few questions.

First, it seems like a lot of older references talk about only stropping intermittently, not daily like most all of us do. Has anybody tried less frequent stropping?

And second, there seem to be a lot of references to using mild abrasive materials like chalk, graphite and rouge on your regular every day strop.

Personally, a strop with no abrasives used every day, and a barber hone once a month seems to do a great job for me, but I'm curious if anybody has tried using only a pasted strop, and only using it to refresh the edge every few shaves, and if so, what sort of results they saw.

i think i have a strop that was originally designed in early 1800s and it has two sides, one for stropping and one for touching up which has some abrasive. the instructions are pretty clear on this.

That makes sense, especially considering that it looks like virtually everybody around here does it more or less the same way. (Including me)

The only reason I ask is that I keep seeing all these little references to stropping as being an occasional thing, or always using an abrasive, and I can't help but wonder where that comes from.

If you've got printed instructions from the 1800, it's certainly not an "old school" thing, and obviously these days we're all doing it the same way, but it seems like at some point, stropping was treated differently. I'd love to know where all these alternative views on stropping came from.

I strop about every 3 shaves. I use fireash on my linen and, as you've noted, experimented with VERY mild abrasive on "daily" plain leather strops. Typically, I just use them clean.

I've never really understood the need to strop every day and have found that most of the old traditional references will work great but take time to really analyze and understand. I usually don't correct people when they reply that about what they do, as it is well, what they do. Most references do say you "need" to strop every shave.

I've found that all the "modern techniques" work but usually are quicker. I relate this to a lack of patience or a desire for more effective action.

Oh, I should add that my learning curve for stropping was particularly long because I never noticed any difference. I suppose if you don't damage the blade much shaving there isn't much to correct with a strop. After a few shaves though I can tell the difference.

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Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

First, it seems like a lot of older references talk about only stropping intermittently, not daily like most all of us do. Has anybody tried less frequent stropping?

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This is from Wikipedia:

I've just started to shave without stropping to see the number of shaves I can get. Unfortunately I'm only at number 3 (4 if you count the last stropping I did, which was on a piece of newspaper.

Good day,

McKie

I remember a few years ago doing an experiment and found that the longest I could go between stroppings was pretty close to the number of shaves I could get from a disposable before I tossed it.

Made sense to me . . .

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I use fireash on my linen...

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Have you noticed the fireash having any negative effect on the blade or the linen? Fireash tends to be a little caustic if it gets wet at all.

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Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

Have you noticed the fireash having any negative effect on the blade or the linen? Fireash tends to be a little caustic if it gets wet at all.

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No, not at all. It makes the linen dirty looking though.

Wow, great information all around.

Until now, I've only had one shave-ready razor, so letting it rest wasn't an option. I've got a second razor on the way from a member here, and I think once it arrives, I'll have to start rotating them, and see what happens to the edge if I let them go a while without stropping.

Worst case scenario, I'll learn something interesting and have an excuse to either send them out to be re-honed, or an excuse to finally buy a honing setup. :rock:


side-note: I use wikipedia all the time, and it never even occurred to me to look up stropping. Oh well.

Get a small barber hone. They hone slow and you can't hardly do any damage with them. I let the blades rest often. I use three razors, but mostly shave with a single blade every other day.

I actually just got a nice little 2-sided barber hone a couple of weeks ago, and it works EXTREMELY well.

I touched my razor up with it after 6 weeks of daily use, and it made a HUGE difference. About 3 laps on the red side, and 5 on the blue/gray side, and it felt almost as good as when gugi sent it to me.

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Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

And second, there seem to be a lot of references to using mild abrasive materials like chalk, graphite and rouge on your regular every day strop.

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I'm one of the guys that has talked about this, but I've got a lot of strops and only a few are pasted. I enjoy experimenting with various flavors of strops and pastes.

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Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

Personally, a strop with no abrasives used every day, and a barber hone once a month seems to do a great job for me, but I'm curious if anybody has tried using only a pasted strop, and only using it to refresh the edge every few shaves, and if so, what sort of results they saw.

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Plain strops work fine for me too, I've got several razors that have around 4 months on them with only an unpasted strop, no barber hones or pastes.

I find that the mild pastes make things go faster, but I also think that plain unpasted linen or cotton gives a sharper edge than even very fine pastes. The tradeoff is that I suspect the mild pasted strops give the shaver an inexpensive and easy-to-learn way to keep their razors going essentially indefinitely.

I've heard of the stropping-every-few-days routine, but every time I've tried it my blades deteriorate extremely quickly; after the third day it's too late for a barber hone. This may be due to my acidic skin; I've found that if I take a razor and shave with it once and put it aside for two days, and take another razor and shave with it for three days straight, then at the end of that period they will both be equally dull. I may have to try this again though to see if vaseline will help.

When a razor begins to tug I do 20 laps on a CrO pasted strop to refresh the edge. When that doesn't appear to work I use my Nortons 4K/8K followed by the pasted strop. This works for me. I don't own a barber's hone I shave six days a week (Sundays I give my face a break) and have a 5-razor rotation. So I can go for several weeks before having to refresh the edge. One thing to keep in mind is that each razor will be different so there is no set time. But if you like a periodic preventative maintenance approach you can do them all at the sime time. :gl:

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I've found that all the "modern techniques" work but usually are quicker. I relate this to a lack of patience or a desire for more effective action.

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I certainly share your sentiments here. That's a huge part of why I shave with a straight in the first place.

Now if I only had your discretion and knew when to shut my trap, I'd probably ruffle fewer feathers. :ziplip:

On the razors boxes I have got with razors, the ones that can still be read, the phrase 'regular stropping is required to keep the edge sharp' or words to that effect, come up regularly.

I strop my razors after every shave (and I don't count laps) and usually before as well.

40 on linen followed by 60 on leather keeps my razors going. I usually strop a razor after every shave, occasionally I shave twice before stropping. I feel a freshly stropped razor performs a better but sometimes I am lazy.

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

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Originally Posted by papaface29

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

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Most metals have a certain degree of "memory." Once they are heated up enough to forge, they will always have a certain tendency to return to the shape they were forged into, unless they are distorted enough to change the "memory" shape.

Very soft metals like gold and lead, have less memory, and require much less bending to change the remembered shape.

Steel has more memory. How much, depends on the particular type of steel, and the particular way it was forged and tempered.

The best example I can give you would be my mother's glasses. Now, we're not talking about those crazy, look how you can bend and twist these things, "flexon" frames. She had a pair of fairly plain glasses which happened to be made from "spring steel" according to the tag that came with them.

She was bucked off a horse and hit a wall face first. Needless to say, in addition to looking like she'd been beat up for several weeks, her glasses were bent up beyond all usefulness. She threw them in a drawer and forgot about them.

3 months later, she was digging through the same drawer, and found her glasses. They were still somewhat bent, but only at the bridge. The temples had straightened themselves back out completely, and the bridge had straightened half way out.


The same thing happens to your razor. The edge does get micro chips while you shave, but the main thing that causes it to dull is that the edge of the blade is incredibly thin, and it get's bent out of shape.

Stropping helps bent that edge back into shape, but so does letting your razor sit for a few days without being used. So, the theory is that resting your blade can increase how long it will last, by giving the edge time to return to position all on it's own, instead of my forcing it back on a strop.

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Originally Posted by papaface29

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

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This probably should not apply to you. But, if you do not strop your razor and wait a few days in between shaves you can get pretty good shaves. Most guys just use a strop.

I see the fairy tale about resting a razor is back :gaah: Sick of that Bull-Chunder being banded about as gospel. :mad: Can't wait for the Thumb stopping to be vomited back into life. :roflmao

Stropping post shave is a good way to clean and dry the razors edge.
A light stropping before a shave serves the same function.
When a razor starts to dull, you then strop the razor more pre shave.
When a reasonable amount of stropping fails to work you can then turn to a pasted strop etc.
When pastes don't work you can then turn to a hone to refresh.

As to when to strop, this has to be a users choice because he is the one getting the feed back from his razor. You may deicide after a shave that the razor didn't perform too well. This will determine the amount of work on the strop/hone will be required for the next shave.
Yes razors can go for many shaves without stropping if kept clean and dry. It has to be born in mind that the strop fills a multi role in razor care.

PuFF

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Originally Posted by PuFFaH

I see the fairy tale about resting a razor is back :gaah: Sick of that Bull-Chunder being banded about as gospel.

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Let me be really clear, in case it was not clear to everyone from my posts. I'm not even coming close to claiming that the idea of resting a razor works. I was simply explaining the theory behind it. I have seen the principle in action, but spring steel frames for glasses, are a completely different beast than a razor edge.

On the other hand, I've got razor #3 on the way, and I fully intend to test the theory out for myself.

Hmmmmm one point for stropping before the shave regardless, of anything else....

Micro-oxidation, there is a huge thread on this already in the forum with pics to accompany all the info....