Thread: Crazy Question on Stropping

I've been watching videos on stropping, ready to tackle the task pretty soon. I see when you get moving that blade goes down pretty darn quickly towards your hand holding the strop.

I imagine it's quite easy to slice your hand there if you're not careful.

When you first start dont worry too much about the speed or, as you say, you might end up slicing yourself or the strop.

Concentrate on getting a consistent stroke that keeps the blade flat on the strop the whole way and on making sure that you dont lift the blade at the end of the stroke. This can result in a rolled edge that will dull the razor.

The Wiki has more info on this as well:

Razor stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Its really important to put the ground work in at the start because good stropping technique is crucial to maintaining your edge, so dont rush it! Take your time and get it right!

And most of all, have fun!

Originally Posted by rickboone

I've been watching videos on stropping, ready to tackle the task pretty soon. I see when you get moving that blade goes down pretty darn quickly towards your hand holding the strop.

I imagine it's quite easy to slice your hand there if you're not careful.

Yes you are approaching the hand holding the strop and at some time it will be darn quick (after some practice) but remember that you are approaching that hand with the spine of the razor leading, the edge is only trailing. There is really a very small chance, even at higher stropping speed, to cut yourself.

D'oh....didn't think about that! Good point.

If you hit your hand with the razor when you are stropping you will do more damage to the razor than your hand.

Muscle memory will take care of all. Stat slow and make sure to work the draws nicely with little pressure, eventually you will start to strop faster.

I don't know what kind of strop you have, but mine has a handle and I naturally end up stopping a few inches away from the top of the handle hardware. So really the razor doesn't come very close to my hand. If you haven't read it yet, take a look at the stropping section in this barber's manual. You might find it helpful. Good luck with your stropping.

File:Help Files Permanent Archive Barbering Textbooks 1961 Barbering Text - Honing.pdf - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by rickboone

I've been watching videos on stropping, ready to tackle the task pretty soon. I see when you get moving that blade goes down pretty darn quickly towards your hand holding the strop.

I imagine it's quite easy to slice your hand there if you're not careful.

Because the stropping motion is done with the edge trailing, the blade is coming at your hand spine first, so cutting yourself would require some rather exceptional "reversal of fortune."

good luck, good stropping

Make sure you don't finish flipping the razor until you've reversed direction, or either your hand or strop will require some work.

Check out this 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing and stropping in the SRP Wiki here. The stropping section is in the last two pages. Note the suggestion to practice flipping the razor on the strop between the tip of the thumb and forefinger without bending the wrist and without doing the stroke.

Holding the tang between the tips of the fingers, they say, will give a better feel for using light pressure when stropping. Learning to flip the razor first means less chance of rounding the edge or damaging the strop. I found this manual very helpful in both my honing and my stropping.