Thread: Negative pressure stropping

I have been playing a bit with my razors and I brought out an old barber hone recently. Before, when my razors were reasonably sharp this barber hone did little, but now that the blades are really pretty sharp already this barber hone is putting some wicked edges on my razors. Sharp!

So, now, what to do about it? As you may have realized these hyper sharp edges are a little more challenging to strop than your average bear. They require either more experience or skill. Well I'm not into professing either of those because I shave a 4 am and I've learned that stropping at speed is better than not, so . . .

I have also found that for a very sharp blade, negative pressure, or a slight lifting is also effective for stropping. I have described this when honing but thought I would mention that it works really well with stropping too.

In stropping with negative pressure your lifting a little as you strop. The sensation is that you are cupping the razor in your hand and lifting slightly at the bicep. With a touch of speed and a sense of lightness you can circumvent the damage of any errors because of the extra light contact. This is of course accomplished with a strop parallel to the floor at about elbow height. That is important, but might be adaptable.

I was getting some incredibly great shaves over the last few days with this process and it occured to me that I should call this "stropping a honemeister blade" since it works so well for extremely good honing work. I discovered that I needed to either; become more skilled at stropping, or develop a technique that would allow for some mistakes . . . I chose the later route and its working very well.

does this imply that if you use positive pressure on a "honemeister's" blade this may mess it up? I am putting enough pressure to get draw and the stropping sound.

So do you still feel draw when you do negative pressure?

I was going to move this to the advanced stropping section so newbies would not find it ever, but I guess that section does not exist.

oh well

Thanks Alan, now I have to try negative pressure stropping myself. First I need a honemeister edge...

I'm a bit mystified by this discussion.

I have used a barber hone for touch-ups for a while, and regardless of who honed the razor, I have never found any need to do anything differently with my stropping.

What am i missing?

Yes, I still feel a draw on the blade but I believe there is less chance of rolling the edge. The sharper a razor is the less pressure you should use. This technique might also be helpful when the razor is first off the hone.

If we'd never had anyone roll an edge with no pressure I'd say there is no need at all for this, but we end up with lots of people dulling edges. This isn't as difficult as negative pressure honing. I think it makes stropping a little easier.

I'm going to play with this a while and see how I like it for long term use and if/when it stops having an enhanced effect on the edge.

Just for clarification its not a honemiester edge that is different, but simply an extremely sharp edge.

No, but the second you apply too much pressure it'll dull. Sometimes, usually on the flip, if I'm not paying attention, or it's early and I'm just generally inattentive, I use a little too much pressure.

Originally Posted by fatpanda

does this imply that if you use positive pressure on a "honemeister's" blade this may mess it up? I am putting enough pressure to get draw and the stropping sound.

So do you still feel draw when you do negative pressure?

How many passes are you making on the strop with your super-light pressure? Are you starting on linen before going to leather?

Not sure, not only am I not a strop pass counter, I usually use few strokes. I would guess that the last week I've been using about 8 strokes, maybe ten.

I usually don't use the linen.

I'll use the linen later as the edge gets duller. I'm not an advocate of the "only use leather off the hone" theory, but it is my habit.

Your pressure and number of passes seems to be in opposition to the "lotsa linen and leather" approach. Interesting.

Not that I am going to jump up and get another barber hone, but I am curious, what are you using to get such good results?

As soon as I read the OP I went in and gave it a try. I think it is an interesting concept and maybe there is something to it. If I ever get a razor that sharp it may come in handy.

I would say that it is for people who are confident in their stropping and have their stroke mastered to the point where they have the razor under complete control throughout the process.

I mean where you can strop correctly without even thinking about what you're doing. Like breathing. Otherwise I think a miscue is possible and then the tragedy of a cut in your beautiful strop.