Thread: Am I stroping wrong?

Originally Posted by honedright

one time down the strop, and one time back up the strop covering both sides of the blade equals one round trip. Do that 20-30 times.

Scott

Agreed. One roundtrip is the same as one pass or one lap.
FWIW, I use 50 laps before each shave.

I don't use linen off the hone, just leather. Then linen and leather alternately in order to create more draw starting on the second shave. I'll do however many strokes it takes to attain a draw. I never just count the passes. Some days it might be 10, somedays 30 (thats est. total on leather only, I don't count linen either) . Usually related to how sharp the blade is before I begin. I'm just trying to smooth the bevel, not convince it give me a good shave. :-)

Oh, and I probably use more pressure than most guys, so that might account for a difference.

If I had to guess it'd be 5 passes linen, 8 passes leather, 4 passes linen, 10 passes leather. Thats pretty typical for me.

as a follow up I thought I pass along that yesterday I placed my strop on my bathroom counter and stropped it that way. I think my shave was better. I may have to try a padle strop.

The last time you stropped your razor you put it on the bathroom counter, I must admit when I started out i was quite confused about the whole stropping issue and I did the exact same thing in my kitchen because I was getting no-where ( well thats what I thought) and like you it gave me a flat surface, when you finally find the draw during stropping, you'll dance a jig...lol, its a great feeling,so dont give up, use what ever works

Regards,simon