Thread: Stropping after the stones.

Yep same here, with very fine stones only leather seems to be best right after the stone, I even skip it for my personal razors.
After the first shave linen and leather is fine, I only do low count laps.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I've experimented with that too. The 1961 barber manual excerpt specifies leather only after honing, linen and leather once you've shaved and are refreshing the edge. I have found, for me, that linen and leather always is best for my particular comfort. YMMV.

I agree with you , Jimmy . In fact , I do 50 on the linen , and then 100 on leather after honing .

Just honed a Union Cutlery Spike for a barber shop--finished on my barber's Thuringian (which I really should return, but I'm having too much fun with it to bother ). Did 50 strokes leather only. Normal practice was always 60 on TM linen off the hones. Feels very smooth when shaving arm hair, but definitely doesn't pop them like after the linen. Might be residual slurry still on the edge muting hair grabbing ability.

(Side theory--that might be why the coticule guys find an improvement off the hone by going to linen--it's cleaning slurry residue off. I mostly finish on other types of naturals these days [my face likes them better], but I've always wondered about that.])

Originally Posted by Disburden

I've noticed too that using little passes such as only 30 laps on leather after honing is all I need over say 60 laps.

What next ? 10 on the palm of your hand & no leather stropping ?

I think it was JimmyHAD posted some instructions from Boker where they recommend 5 or 6 strokes to strop a new razor.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

What next ? 10 on the palm of your hand & no leather stropping ?

I think it was JimmyHAD posted some instructions from Boker where they recommend 5 or 6 strokes to strop a new razor.

Heel of the foot has much better draw! lol

I tend to do more laps on the strop after honing. I usually do 30 fabric and 60 leather before each shave, then 15/30 afterwards.

After honing I do 50 fabric and 100 leather just to try and really eke out the maximum amount of smoothness from the edge. YMMV of course!

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

I actually have recently decided not to even strop after fresh honing. I find the edge much smoother. When I compared the edges under ~360X magnification, the edge off a fresh hone was much smoother than when I did the stropping...especially if its linen stropping followed by leather. The linen just seems to destroy the smoothness of the edge. When I do leather stropping after honing, I only use 5-10 laps, no more...with extremely light touch.

In terms of the shave, the edge feeling was basically the same whether I stropped on leather ONLY after honing or no stropping at all. They both felt smooth.

But, that's just been my experience.

I really agree with this viewpoint. there are a few references to the linen roughing up an edge and that that is the purpose of linen.

I think the thing to do is not get in a rut but to read threads like this one and experiment with what works for others. I got my stropping routine from reading a post by mparker762 where he described sharpening razors through multiple laps on linen and leather. I have been sticking with an abbreviated version of that routine for a few years now but I'm going to play around with less laps and leather only after the hones and see how it works for me.

Jimmy,

I'm telling ya the foot stropping is where it's at! lol

My usually routine is linen and leather after the stones, with good results. I guess I could try some of the suggestions from this thread, but I'm happy with the initial shaves I have.