Thread: What is your stropping method?

I only do a few on linen, then 30 on cowhide treated very sparingly with Dovo Black Paste, then 50 on plain horsebutt. Sparingly with the Dovo Black.

Jerry
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Fresh off the stone, i do anywhere from 20-60 on my well worn, swarf-stained TM linen (great stuff now that it's aged!) & Alan's ATG stropping regimen: 20 strokes w/ a bit of pressure, a few more w/ less & then 10-20 w/ very light pressure. Leather is my Scrupleworks 3"--the only strop I even use these days, except for my TM linen. The leather is that good.

For keeping the edge going, i do quite a bit on that same TM linen:60-100 strokes. For me, it was the missing ingredient. My beard is a complete razor destroyer & I sometimes get more comfortable results on parts of my chin doing WTG w/ a very steep blade angle as opposed to XTG or even ATG in some spots, which accelerates the damage even further. 2 shaves max before it starts to pull (keep in mind, my face is ultra-sensitive to pulling or even normal resistance while shaving, so my definition of pulling will not necessarily be the same as yours) if I don't really get on the strop. I'm thinking the embedded iron oxide (it is an abrasive) helps clean off the gunk & smooth everything back out. My (almost new) Scrupleworks linen is great stuff, but being so new, it's nowhere near as effective at repairing damage--yet. Certainly does no harm & does a great job of cleaning, but after a 3 pass shave, I go to the TM for a bit, followed by a few on the Scrupleworks linen to break it in.

When I was trying this out, I did sets of 20 laps & tried popping arm/leg hairs (the only version of the HHT that really tells me much about shave-readiness) until it stopped getting better.

Then on leather, I go & do Alan's ATG regimen again & the blade is good to go. I try not to do too many light-pressure stokes on leather as I find it smooths the razor, but takes away a tiny bit of sharpness. Not enough leaves it pretty-much off-the-Oozuku sharp, but nowhere near as smooth. Balance is best for me, it seems. If in doubt, I hit it again w/ the linen & I'm usually back in business.

May seem extreme, but for me, it's the key to having edges last a normal time. If this doesn't prove "YMMV", I don't know what will.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I roo too! Never used anything but leather in my life. Well, I have tried other things like linen or canvas (even corduroy), but really they never added anything for me, IMO. I just keep going until I feel the edge is ready, then I stop.

James.

I have tried many surfaces, pasted and plain, but leather has no equivalent. I go straight from my Naniwa 12K to CrO balsa and then leather only for me until it needs to rotate back to the 12K, or if necessary back to my 4k/8k Norton. There is still some debate on whether any other intermediate material is necessary or even helps in the hands of the inexperienced. I am increasingly convinced from discussions on this forum that beginners would do better with a flat, wet-stone size surface like a leather paddle for stropping because so many seem to mess up with the flexibility of the hanging strop. I think plain newspaper on the edge of a table would be more reliable for some newbies. I have used this in a pinch and consider it to be very close, but not equal to leather.

Gentlemen,
I strop south to north, 30 laps on the canvas and 60 on the leather. Off the hone, the count is 100 strokes, leather only.