Thread: 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.

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?

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 . . .

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I use fireash on my linen...

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.

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.

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.


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.