Thread: 10 months of stropping...finally there?

Another member said it best: "After three months I knew what I was doing, then three months later I knew that I didn't". I may have gotten the quote wrong but it's a perfect way to describe my experience with stropping.

Over the last ten months or so I have thought a few times that I had tamed the strop. On the one hand always building skill in the handling of the razor, on the other not quite getting the result I want. I'm looking for a razor that gives a comfortable shave several times in a row.

Now it seems I'm getting it. Smooth confident strokes, and correcting some minor un-evenness in my stroke was the key. On my last couple of razors, the blade has gotten smoother over the first one or two shaves, then stayed consistent for the week.

My journey is continuing. For now it looks like I have something to celebrate.

If you are having trouble with stropping, please keep this post in mind. If I can make this kind of progress then so can you.

Michael

It sounds like you're really on the right path. That's fantastic. That whole stropping thing is a mystery best solved by continued experimentation and practice.

I also think you have something to celebrate.

Bravo Michael - on several counts. Not the least is talking about what's still a struggle. I very much struggled w/ stropping - for a long time. When I started, it seemed like everyone was doing just fine - that I was the only slug that didn't get it. Then someone posted a thread about problem areas and there were pages of replies where guys spoke of finishing problem areas w/ a DE or cartridge, etc. The honesty was more encouraging than anything else could have been.

In golf (I don't play), my handicap is my stroke. I suspect it is in my honing also. I expect to keep learning for years to come.

Glen's statement at the NW meet last year was great for me. At 100 blades honed, you think you know some things about honing. At 500 blades, you realize you don't. I hit the 500 blade despair shortly before 200 blades. At 352 blades, it still baffles me.

Only the guys that don't get it right away are any help to me. I appreciate your post a bunch, Michael.

Originally Posted by Maxi

...That whole stropping thing is a mystery best solved by continued experimentation and practice...

The law the lawyers know about

The law the lawyers know about
Is property and land;

But why the leaves are on the trees,
And why the winds disturb the seas,
Why honey is the food of bees,
Why horses have such tender knees,
Why winters come and rivers freeze,
Why faith is more than what one sees,
And hope survives the worst disease,
And charity is more than these,
And stropping works (at least it seems),

They do not understand.

Apologies to H. D. C. Pepler

(second to last line added by me :-)

Mike, Time takes time. I am still learning how to get the strop perfect. But I'm better tan I was, and that, to me, is progress. Thank you for your honesty. Travel the journey, well!