Thread: Minor breakthrough?

I'm new to straight razor shaving but I do have experience stropping my Bark River knives. So I thought it would be easy to strop a straight razor...Wrong!!! Anyway, everybody said use real light pressure and keep the strop taut. I wasn't getting good results. I then read this in the SRP help files, "The pressure of the razor must be heavy enough to feel a firm drag or "draw". I used one of my razors that I thought didn't shave every well and gave it a shot. I didn't pull as hard on the strop and gave enough pressure to the razor until I felt something "draw". Now it's passing the HHT, I know..I know that doesn't mean anything. Before doing this I couldn't feel any draw. So was I pulling too tight on the strop and maybe not using enough pressure "if that's even possible" before?

I'm not really sure either but I don't put any pressure on the strop, just enough to hold the spine on the leather. i keep the strop moderately tight. I'm not trying to pull the hook out of the wall, just tight to keep it straight. I'm looking forward to stroptober as a learning experience.

Maybe it's a combination of how tight you pull the strop and how much pressure you use on the razor?

Lynn has a great stropping video that may help. Just shy of the 4:00 mark he gets into pressure and how tight to pull the strop. I was surprised when I first watched it how much give there was in the strop, so one thing I'm really curious about with the stroptober thread is seeing just how much play there is in my strop!

Anyway, here's the vid. The whole thing is worth watching for sure, but the specific bit relating to your questions starts about 3:50 or so in.

straight razor stropping - YouTube