Thread: Uni-directional stropping?

My opinion: Trying to do an x-stroke pattern when just starting is gonna cause brain overload and strop cuts. I would perfect the blade roll and timing and worry about the x-pattern later. Some folks never do it anyway.

Thanks for your words of wisdom chaps. I'm not saying stropping 10 times up and then 10 times down is better (if it was, everyone would do it that way), but can anyone tell me why it isn't as good as the conventional up-down style.

I find I can do it very quickly, so I don't think lack of heat generation would be the problem. As for "efficiency", I find it more efficient to only do the flip once every 10 laps, instead of 10 times.

Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it is a better way - I'd just like to hear more theories as to why it isn't.

It works the same in my experience - just makes me more prone to nice the strop. If it works the same or better for you, by all means trust your own experience.

I could see their being value and stropping one and then the other to keep the fin balanced in the middle, rather than tilting it one way and then the other, but it didn't seem to be an issue when I did it. And there is plenty of precedent for doing 10 quick honing strokes one way and then 10 the other, and that removes more metal than stropping.

So I've never heard any reason why it wouldn't work wtih stropping, in my experience it works great with stropping - I just got tired of nicking my strop.

I just find I get into the back and forth motion pretty easily and that feels smooth and comfortable to me.

I agree with loueedacat that going 10 times one way then 10 the other might make you a little more likely to slice your strop because you might inadvertantly dig the edge in on the return trip.

That, and I'm hiding behind the fact that its been done that way for centuries and it works, so why change it..!

I'm pretty new myself, and found practicing with a butter knife very helpful. It allows you to work through your initial clumsyness without damaging either your professionally sharpened razor or your new strop.

It took me about 2-3 15 minutes sessions of practice before I had a comfortable spine roll and stroke and was confident I wasn't going to ruin razor or strop.

That said, it is a lot harder than it looks. You would think a simple running the razor up and down a strap of leather wouldn't be to complicated, but then you test the edge and find you really haven't done much.