Thread: What is your stropping method?

I didn't like the rough canvas I had on the back of one of my strops and didn't get very good results from it. So I had a pair of denim carpenters jeans that were tore up so I decided to make a denim strop. I just did 100 laps on the denim then went to my latigo then to my horse hide, and the denim really helped smooth out the edge quite a bit.

Now what is your stropping progression, and what types of odd materials have you had success with?

Back and forth with a flip over the spine at each end, spine leading the edge...



Sorry, had to be a smartarse, it's in my nature. I don't bother to count and I use both sides of a home made 'roo hide strop.


Mick

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.

new to this, very new, under two months.

I was using leather only for a while, then I tried leather/linen, wrong order, I think.
Just switched it around, linen then leather and am getting MUCH smoother shaves, I think.
Do about 50 laps on each and will play with the numbers/ratios over time.

My normal routine is 40 linen/60 leather. Off the hones I'll increase my leather laps to the 80-100 region. If it's a heavy wedge I'll increase the ratio to perhaps 50 linen/100 leather.

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.

Ten to 15 laps on the flesh (rough) side followed by 50 laps on the grain (smooth) side of a Poor Man's Strop. After about 2 months of shaving daily, I will do 30 laps on CrOx and 30 laps on FeOx balsa strop followed by 50 laps on the smooth side of the leather strop.

Tony Miller Heirloom tri-strop: 3x25 laps

Kanayama 3000, 20 on the linen and 60 on the cordovan.