Thread: My stropping

AF I'm with you on this one. I use what I guess would be somewhat firm pressure when stropping, but I hold the strop quite taut. I don't pull so hard that the strop wants to curl, but quite neat that hard. As hard as I strop, I have a feeling that if I relax my left hand for a second, my edge will be obliterated. I have very good results. Another benefit of hard stropping is it's easier to keep the blade flat on the strop. With light pressure, the edge or spine is more apt to raise up off the strop during the stroke. Something else I believe is paramount ~ keeping the strop well conditioned. The dryer the strop gets, the more pressure I need to get drag, so I condition mine quite frequently. I use the Fromm conditioner, and normally for a few days I am wiping off a tad of waxy residue from my razors after stropping. They drag well though! I wish I could find a more oily type conditioner that wouldn't "wax" up on the surface of the strop. I want to try neatsfoot or something like that, but am nervous I might foul up my strops. Anyway, good post! Gave me a reason to think deeper on this. .................Jeff

Cool, its nice to see some come out of the woodwork once you start shaking the trees. Might be a few other heavy stroppers out there. I got some really nice strop dressing from Tony.

Part of the draw factor is what type of leather and what surface characteristics they have. I have several types I use and some like my #1 and #2 have an almost sticky surface that has good drag with little pressure. Others have a harder, slicker surface and take a little more pressure. I do tend to use the harer ones on the razors that keep the keenest edge and the stickier ones on razors tat don't hold up quite as well.

Tony