Thread: Stropping is King

I would like to add my own take on this discussion.

I have honed my razor until it passed the WHT (Whacking hair test ) on 2 places. My problem with the HHT is that I don't have suitable hair, and my wife's hair is curly.

So I started stropping on the red paste. This time I insured that I did not use too much pressure. The shave was fairly OK.
I decided to stay away from the hone, and continue on red paste before each shave. I have stropped on the red paste (followed by leather) for the third time now, and have to admit that each shave was better than the previous one.

The shaving sensation tells me that the edge is getting sharper and smoother each time.

So despite being a newbie here, I am tempted to believe that -if properly maintained- a razor can stay sharp using nothing but strops.
Using leather without paste alone I have not tried so far.

If you want to do a HHT and do not have suitable hair yourself: ask a bag full at your local hairdresser's. Some SRP members use hairs of an old or cheap brush, some even use dog hairs.

This thread inspired me to be more deliberate with my stropping technique and I've started an experiment that's yielding fairly encouraging results so far (but it's still early). Here's the basic abstract:
1) Before, I just used to lather up, give it 30 quick strokes, re-lather and shave.
2) This time, I'd also do 30 strokes but I'd do 10 with pressure, 10 with less pressure and 10 barely touching.
3) So far my shaves have been amazing but I'd like to compare that with the rest of my rotation (only 2 razors tested and one's amazing under all circumstances)
More to come.

I'm doing some experimenting myself and getting some very encouraging results but I'm in the early stages yet. Unfortunately it's making my morning shaves pretty boring.

Fortunately my tests encourage varying blades. However, I'll have to take a short break. Tomorrow I'm going for another shave with my Tech (I just don't want to skew the results) and I rest on Sundays. Can't wait to resume on Monday.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

This thread inspired me to be more deliberate with my stropping technique and I've started an experiment that's yielding fairly encouraging results so far (but it's still early). Here's the basic abstract:
1) Before, I just used to lather up, give it 30 quick strokes, re-lather and shave.
2) This time, I'd also do 30 strokes but I'd do 10 with pressure, 10 with less pressure and 10 barely touching.
3) So far my shaves have been amazing but I'd like to compare that with the rest of my rotation (only 2 razors tested and one's amazing under all circumstances)
More to come.

I tried this technique with today's shave and it worked fantastically. Great tip Ilija .

I'm glad it worked for you George. It was an experiment that I'm resuming today. On saturday I tested my new DE in the evening and since I wanted to keep things even and have 1 day's growth on my face with every one of the straights in my rotation, I used the DE again yesterday morning.

I had a little breakthrough tonight. Excellent shave and I think I caused very little damage to the edge. I applied shaving soap on my strop two days ago. It removed all the draw on my strop, which was very dissapointing. I'm actually looking for a substitute for dressing right now (don't have any). I changed the highth of my strop and placed it so a taught strop would sit just below my elbow. The strop was completely level with the floor. I then "stropped" by gently whipping the blade "over" the strop. Not too fast but most would describe it as quickly. The sense of touching it at all was rather absent. And with the absense of any draw I had prior; the feeling was that the razor was floating over the strop. The sound of the razor touching the strop was the only evidence that I was even stropping. Suprisingly the razor shaved well; very, very well. I had to strop 3 times during the shave, which is a new experience for me but I could tell the edge was getting stropped with the least amount of "action" on the edge I've ever created/caused. I had to hold the razor shank with my middle finger and move the shank by turning/flipping the razor with my thumb.

It was kinda neat, but really, really hard to do.

I know I'm going to get one of Tony's strops. I looked them over the other day and they look great as well as being three inches wide and a bit longer which I like. I'm sure many of you use his strops.

Holy crap!! I thought this thread died a long time ago.....


Scott