Thread: Flip the blade or rotate the wrists?

So what is your preferred method when stropping? Do you hold the tang still and rotate your wrists, or do you 'flip' the tang in your fingers to turn the blade over?
I tend to flip the blade, but I am a newbie, and last night the blade got a little Scwewy on the return pass and I nicked my strop. I then tried to just rotate my wrist, but it seems awkward.....perhaps it is just a matter of training muscle memory all over again.

You should be flipping the blade, so you're teaching yourself to do it the right way. If you take it too fast or allow your fingers to lose control you may well damage the strop. I'd keep at it without rotating your wrist. The strop damage is simply part of the learning process for most of us, I'm afraid! You'll get there in the end.

This 1961 barber manual excerpt here helped me a lot. Hold the tang with the tip of your thumb on the bottom of the tang and your forefinger tip on the top of the tang. Practice flipping the razor without doing the stroke. Just the flip. When you have that down begin a slow steady rhythmic stroke. Speed will come as you practice.

This video helped my stropping technique tremendously.

YouTube - straight razor stropping