Thread: Question on stropping.

Originally Posted by JeffR

Not necessarily so. It is a good starting point, however lifting the spine slightly (or equivalently slightly "torquing" the edge into the strop) is sometimes useful. Similarly, a little more pressure than the weight of the razor can also be beneficial.

Shh dont tell him that yet

Originally Posted by dave5225

I have 2 questions :
#1) Was your razor honed by someone experienced at honing razors , before you started using it or have you tried to sharpen it using only the strop ?
#2) What angle have you been using when you strop ?

The razors I purchased were not previously "shave ready" however the one was close ( I could shave with it with difficulty). I stropped them as reccomended in this forum up to 200 laps on the linen and 200+ on the leather and still they won't pass the standing hair test. The next step is either send them out for sharpening or invest in a waterstone. As I'm pretty stubborn it will likely be the waterstone. With all the info available on this forum and utube I think I should be able to get thru this.

If you're good at honing knives , you should be able to adjust to honing a razor . This is how I started , but it took some trial and error before I was able to put an acceptable edge on my razors , and most of the shaves were pretty rough at first . Looking back , I should have sent one of my razors to someone who knows how to hone a razor . It would have saved me a few rough shaves , but I'm also stubborn . BTW , judging from the way you describe the shave your razor gave you , it needs to be honed , stropping is not going to get it sharp enough to shave with . In experienced hands , a shave ready razor should be able to cut cleanly through the beard without skipping over the stubble .