Lemming Leaps

So I tried something new, from the General thread on Lemmings. Nenad spoke of his friend Dimitrija, and I tried to follow his advice. Heres what I did. I loaded up a TM strop with .5 paste and stroped a stainless razor which I haven't been able to shave well with for about 6 months. I have gotten a few nice shaves from it. I used the .5 with a 2 inch slack in the strop. I then stropped on regular leather, again with a 2 inch slack. Please don't refer to any of this as an experiment. Just what I decided to do.

I gave myself a good shave on the right side of my face. Not exceptional but better than typical with this razor. I then concluded that I could probably do better and restroped the razor on leather with a flat, taught strop using some pressure. I then received an excellent shave on the left side of my face. Not spectacular but better than the left side.

My initial conclusions are that this will continue to be part of my shaving for a while.

I was concerned about the 2 inch slack, but I realized the blade still remains flat either way.

I'm going to try much less slack in the pasted strop, maybe one inch and continue using a taught strop for daily shaving. Well see how it goes.

My intuition tells me a light touch on the strop would have worked well, not sure why I had that feeling, but its the first time stropping I've really felt that way. Like the edge really was maleable.

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

So I tried something new, from the General thread on Lemmings. Nenad spoke of his friend Dimitrija, and I tried to follow his advice. Heres what I did. I loaded up a TM strop with .5 paste and stroped a stainless razor which I haven't been able to shave well with for about 6 months. I have gotten a few nice shaves from it. I used the .5 with a 2 inch slack in the strop. I then stropped on regular leather, again with a 2 inch slack. Please don't refer to any of this as an experiment. Just what I decided to do.

I gave myself a good shave on the right side of my face. Not exceptional but better than typical with this razor. I then concluded that I could probably do better and restroped the razor on leather with a flat, taught strop using some pressure. I then received an excellent shave on the left side of my face. Not spectacular but better than the left side.

My initial conclusions are that this will continue to be part of my shaving for a while.

I was concerned about the 2 inch slack, but I realized the blade still remains flat either way.

I'm going to try much less slack in the pasted strop, maybe one inch and continue using a taught strop for daily shaving. Well see how it goes.

My intuition tells me a light touch on the strop would have worked well, not sure why I had that feeling, but its the first time stropping I've really felt that way. Like the edge really was maleable.

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Let us know how it turns out. I always thought the strop needed to be taunt.

I am glad to hear this is working for you. I have used some slack this morning with my bunch of three razors which needed couple of finishing touches on the 8K hone, and shaved with all three with sucess. When I get some more info on the honing method, I will let you know...

Nenad

Second shave tonight. Used the same razor with taught flat stropping. Again, another nice shave. Tried the one inch slack on .5 with a carbon razor and taught stropping. Tested this razor tonight as well. Both shaved well. These aren't extrodinary shaves but are better than I typically recieve.

I am pretty certain I can conclude that I am not rolling the edge or creating any damage. The blade is sharper. I think my next step tonight will be to strop on .5 another 30 passes with one inch slack and strop tomorrow without slack (on unpasted).

I should caveat that I strop using some pressure, its a habit I can't break easily. So slack stropping with a light touch might be just fine, but for daily stroping on clean leather I think I may stick with taught stopping for this week.

The edge is definetly sharper than before, no doubt in my mind about that.

Ok Alan, here's what I think:

Of course the razor is sharp, you're using paste. The real changes will only be noticeable after several dozen shaves as the paste on the strop has a chance to affect the bevel. For this reason I recommend you only use one razor this way and try to only shave with that razor in order to reduce the time before results will show. Also if you haven't got one, consider getting a good microscope to see if you can see the difference.

Also, you may not want to call this an experiment, but it's at least an important experience that should teach us some lessons if we're lucky. Just goes to show you there's more than one way to skin your face. ;)

X

Ofcourse I have a microscope, X, I have the RS I got when I became a honemiester....LOL. So I reviewed the results under the RS as you suggested and I was non-plused by the appearance. It looked better but not impressive. I've used pastes before, but not to any noticable effect. Tonight I didn't see any effect worth getting excited about. I could see some benefit to the edge of the bevel, which made sense with the curve in the strop.

Then I went to a dry paste instead of Amplex. I did 40 passes on .5 dry paste and saw dramatic improvement in the bevel edge.

I do have a problem, I think with the bevel. One side of the edge sounds different on the strop than the other. The directed honing pattern was a circular pattern, one that I'm not very familiar with. May be something I'll need to fix.

The edge does appear much nicer now. The blade is drawing on the clean strop like crazy. Its cutting arm hair like crazy too. I'll run a quick shave in the AM to test it, but I won't have much beard. LOL.

Try to watch for any rounding of the bevel over the long term. I'd be interested to see how long it takes and whether it gets more comfortable as the time goes along

X

Why a circular honing pattern?

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I do have a problem, I think with the bevel. One side of the edge sounds different on the strop than the other. The directed honing pattern was a circular pattern, one that I'm not very familiar with. May be something I'll need to fix.

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You don't have a problem. One side does soung diferent sometimes, I think it's the direction of the grain on the leather.

And for the long term effect on the bevel, no problem either, the razors I have seen at D's house are looking fine, and he says he sharpens them once a year (all 4 of them), using the Yellow Coticule only! I have no idea about pressure, but the motion is circular...

Nenad

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

Why a circular honing pattern?

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Since the circular motion is more aggressive, I assume it is to return the bevel because the pasted hanging strop is rounding it. Makes sense to me that way at least.

X

Got a good shave last night but I had to strop often during the shave. It felt a little rough but the blade was sharp. I did not put it to the .5 paste again. I'm under the impression this technique might be .5 paste every shave, which is a theory I don't buy in to. Got a good shave, but again not great. Finally,a little out of frustration I ran the blade on a barber hone ten strokes and test shaved, which fixed all the discomfort issues that were developing. I think the slack strop creates sharp; but at a cost. The edge seemed to need aligning. A sharp blade that isn't aligned correctly was a new sensation to me. I fixed it with a hone but its possible better stropping (or different) stroping technique would be better with this type of bevel. Even the razor slap on the strop would atleast come close to flattening it. But since it seems to misalign while shaving I'll keep testing it out. From here I can tell it shaves very well.

At this point I give big thumbs up to using .5 paste on a slack strop but thats the only part of this technique I can endorse. The razor shaves great. But its a delicate edge.

I'll need to stop soon as I think I'm at the limit of my understanding on what this actual technique is about.

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I'll need to stop soon as I think I'm at the limit of my understanding on what this actual technique is about.

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Don't stop. If I might suggest, be persistent with tis and the effects should show in the long run. What do I know though, I'm not shaving ith it.

X

I know what you mean sometimes its just too much. Takes the fun out of shaving.:p

A suppose if you're expecting immediate results. What kind of angler casts his line in the water a few times, gets no bites and sails back to shore. Results come from listening, being attentive to the changes. Listen longer and you'll be surprised what you can learn.

X

Yeah but you still have to throw the line in at some point. There is theory and then there is practice.

Ok, another session. This time as an aside let me say that I have honed up two more razors (carbon) on the TM strop with dry .5 paste and two more razors are now in the bin of great shavers, moved from the difficult to hone cellar. As a technique I'm loving the sagging strop with paste.

Tonights session went as might be expected. I took a perfectly good razor and instead of shaving with it decided to see the over effects. Are they just around the corner or far in the distance? Well, they were only 20 strokes away. I checked the edge after 20 passes on .5 and the razor DID NOT DRAW ON THE STROP. That, as you all know, was a telling signature. I went to the microscope and expected to find a rolled edge. I saw what I characterize as the micro starbursts of an overhoned edge. I believe this might make sense given the aggressive nature stropping with a sag might have. I shaved anyway, pushing through a slight painful shave. I think the edge will settle over the next few days and I'll just run with it. I believe that no more stropping on paste is called for for about a week.

Unless ofcourse I hear a chorus for a backhoning and "restart"

One thing I keep forgetting to mention, is the amount of sag I put on the strop. I have found, actually around the third stropping session, that the strop has a natural sag point that it likes to sit at, around 1 1/2 inches of sag. It just sits here naturally. Anymore, or any less, is almost hard to achieve.

Again, I'm finding this method more aggressive and effective than my flat paddle strops or stroping on a flat hanging strop.