Thread: Slack Question

I would think that you might roll the edge after a few sessions of stropping this way. The leather is pulled up on the blade as you draw it down the length of the strop, causing the edge to roll & adding undesired pressure to the blade while stropping.

One little tip to know how taut you are pulling your strop is to hang your strop in a place where you can see the stropping motion from the side.
I have seen people strop who believed they had it completely flat, with no give at all.
The fact of the matter was that they generally had at least an inch, or even 2, of give on it.
That may not be all that wrong, but I know I benefitted from viewing my own stropping form the side.
Both in reducing my pressure on the razor, and assuring i kept the strop taut.
Another way to avoid to much strain on the edge is to try to let the strop get pressured down by the spine of the razor, not the edge,

Originally Posted by Birnando

I have seen people strop who believed they had it completely flat, with no give at all.
The fact of the matter was that they generally had at least an inch, or even 2, of give on it.

You may have a point, but that describes the natural sag of a properly taut strop as well. There will always be a certain amount of "give" (which provides the deflection), although I admit that 2" may be a bit excessive.

Interesting posts, in my short experience I have settled on the visualization "Tight, but not a death grip." Basically just loose enough that you are able to use little if any pressure on the blade while still maintaining a nice smooth feel.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

When I first started I thought being taut was paramount so I used to tie one end of my strop to my Honda Civic and the other end to my Son's Honda Civic and when the wheels were spinning it was time to strop. Only thing is my car has a bigger engine and I would start to pull his down the street so I had to learn to strop fast before we reached the end of the block.

I used to get the strop really taut by hanging my wife from the second story bathroom window with her holding on to the strop. That gets it real tight as long as she holds on to the other end of the strop. There is a danger in this, though, because if she lets go of her end I might roll the edge of the razor I'm stropping.

well i acutally just jump on my skateboard and latch my trop to a person that is going bys bumper and then i grab the other end and strop like heck before he has to break. teaches you alot of things when ur stropping at 50mph and only have 2 -4 min to get both linen and leather sides done. lol

I'm an apprentice butcher and for the ultimate stropping experiance when I'm making corned beef I fill my own forearm with brine which makes it ULTRA tight and I go too town with whichever razor I've snuck into work, makes such a great edge it's almost worth the 3weeks off on workers comp LOL

To a degree, doesn't it depend on the blade geometry and how you have set the bevel. I went a bit shallow on the wedge angle on my Spikey razor so ended up honing it with 4 layers of tape to get the edge to around 15/16 degrees. I get the idea if I don't give a little slack in the strop it wont touch the edge.

I see what you are referring to theoretically, but in practice I doubt one will see much actual difference.

Originally Posted by raisedbybrocks

To a degree, doesn't it depend on the blade geometry and how you have set the bevel. I went a bit shallow on the wedge angle on my Spikey razor so ended up honing it with 4 layers of tape to get the edge to around 15/16 degrees. I get the idea if I don't give a little slack in the strop it wont touch the edge.

I agree but it depends on the strop also. A soft thin strop eg kangaroo will reach around to the edge on multi layered tape spines with less slack allowed than a new, stiff, thick, glassy hard strop. Even stiff linen will require a fair amount of slack in these cases. The key is not to vary the slack with the anchor hand.