Thread: Stropping is King

This is a great thread. I'm particularly interested in what Alan finds out with his experimentation.

I've been doing some more experimenting of my own. (My hair and my wife's hair works great for the HHT, so I have a pretty good benchmark to go against.)

This morning I tested my razor before stropping. It broke hairs, but didn't cut them cleanly. After 30 laps on the linen, it was back to popping hairs. I'm amazed at how well the linen works; Kees mentioned an abrasive in the linen, and I wouldn't be surprised. I used to think it was just cloth.

About 50 strokes with medium-easing-to-light pressure on the leather put an even finer edge on the razor. Cut cleanly through hanging hairs--wow. I'm on my third shave since the pasted strops and there's no noticeable dropoff in sharpness.

I'm wondering if my edge isn't a little weak. I only go up to .5 microns on my pasted strop, but I have a coarse beard. I'm still working on my shaving technique, so I'm not sure what to expect.

Keep the interesting info coming,
Josh

I'm starting a new thread "Testing the limits of a strop"

Originally Posted by joshearl

This morning I tested my razor before stropping. It broke hairs, but didn't cut them cleanly. After 30 laps on the linen, it was back to popping hairs. I'm amazed at how well the linen works; Kees mentioned an abrasive in the linen, and I wouldn't be surprised. I used to think it was just cloth.

About 50 strokes with medium-easing-to-light pressure on the leather put an even finer edge on the razor. Cut cleanly through hanging hairs--wow. I'm on my third shave since the pasted strops and there's no noticeable dropoff in sharpness.

The idea is not to use anything but the linnen and leather of the strop and see if you reach a point where just stropping will not restore the edge.