Thread: Seem to be making the same mistakes over and over

Hey all, I had a few quick questions pertaining to my particular issues with stropping. I apologize in advance if any of my questions are a repeat of a previous thread.
First of all, I am using a Dovo straight razor, with a Dovo strop from AOS. I have been using my straight razor for about 2 weeks now, at least once every 2 days. I strop after each shave, and before each shave. The strop has a canvas side and a leather side. I usually do 15-20 passes on the canvas, and 40 or so on the leather. I have gotten pretty good at turning the razor, and am pretty confident with that skill.
The places I run into issues are mainly on my downward passes. (Blade facing away from me, and razor coming towards me) I have noticed that I often feel more drag or pressure as I come downwards. When this happens it also makes a different sound than my upward passes. I am holding the strop taught, and I am applying what I believe to be the same amount of pressure as my upward stroke.
Any advice or possible explanation would be greatly appreciated. Also if you have any other advice not related to my question, such as how many passes I should be performing, feel free to chime in.
I am definitely going to try to post a video of me stropping, so that I can be critiqued, and work out any mistakes I may be making.

Thanks for your help!

You might be doing it just fine. The sound differences are pretty common, based on the strop. As long as you are aware of the importance of equal pressure.

Is there any thing else that leads you to believe there are problems?

Just a thought, but if you're holding the strop too close to vertical it will make things a lot harder.

I keep it pretty flat when I strop I think, I dont usually notice I will have to see today how flat I really hold it. The only reason I think I am having problems is because it seems to easy and carefree. Everyone says that they nick their strops, and I have not done that nor do I even really see how it could be done in regards to my personal experience stropping. Maybe I just go slower? Are nicks usually the result of a more experienced, faster moving stropper?

Originally Posted by asj1991

I keep it pretty flat when I strop I think, I dont usually notice I will have to see today how flat I really hold it. The only reason I think I am having problems is because it seems to easy and carefree. Everyone says that they nick their strops, and I have not done that nor do I even really see how it could be done in regards to my personal experience stropping. Maybe I just go slower? Are nicks usually the result of a more experienced, faster moving stropper?

Nicks are usually the result of a Less experienced, faster moving Stropper, caused by lack of coordination between turning and changing direction of travel.

If the Razor is shaving well, you're probably doing just fine.

Leather has a natural grain to it so that might account for some of the differing sounds you are hearing. As you strop you might be cross or with or against from direction to direction.

What mistakes do you think you are making over and over? I read your post and didn't read of any particular mistakes. You mention a certain number of passes on the canvas and leather sides of the strop. Is that giving you good results? If so, I'd say you are doing well and making no mistakes. And avoiding nicking your strop is certainly not a mistake. Of course a video will tell a lot about your technique, but once again, if you are ending up with good results then your technique must be working for you regardless of what others think.

What easyace said. But I get a different sound each way from mine too; a Dovo canvas/leather. I do 30/70 before shaving and 10/10 after, just to dry the blade. I found it takes a while going quite slowly to build up the muscle memory. I never used to do so many laps when I started, and thinking back now I think that was a good thing. I think the risk of loosing concentration doing lots of passes outweighs the benefit of more. I think as you get better, and really concentrate, you should add more passes [EDIT, I don't mean YOU, I mean ONE].

My son, to my horror, strops on his arm. I've only nicked my strop once, but if that were my arm, I think I would have had some issues to deal with... Clearly he is a very stupid boy...

I have a paddle strop that does the same thing. I switched ends on it to see if it was me & it was just the leather...like it has a bit of "directional" grain. Don't worry about it...