Thread: how many shaves can a razor get with only one stroping?

I was just wondering how many shaves would a sharpend stroped razor give with out stroping it again?

Eddie

I say one good shave if it's a regular carbon steel razor. If you get a second it's either gravy or you're doing something tricky to keep her going. If it's damascus, you might get a longer run.

X

I was just wondering, I had to stay away from home for a couple of weeks unexpectedly and did not have a strop to use, so I went ahead and used my straight razor any way. It worked fine. I have got about four shaves so far. I guess its because my beard is not at all as heavy as most. I know from reading the threds that you should strop befor each use.

Thanks
Eddie

The easy answer is "one" - the conventional wisdom is that you should strop every time. /Can/ you get more than one shave out? Yes, but your shaves won't be as good, and I suspect that you will wind up honing more often in the long run because the microserrations won't be properly aligned and might eventually be damaged.

A better question is "What is your tolerance for pain."

That is about what I figured. I plan to bring my strop with me from now on. I was thinking about maybe gitting a 2 or 4 sided paddel strop to take with me down the road.

Eddie

I have a Tony Miller two sider for travel situations. Takes a bit longer, but works great.

X

Haha. I can't even get one full shave by stropping. I need to do a few passes on the leather before my against the grain pass.

A question for you gents. Is this because my technique is bad, or do I have a tough beard? I remember someone else here on this forum mention that they need to strop between passes but I'm not sure if he was a newb or not.

That may have been me. I've got a pretty tough beard and used to have to strop my sheffield razors between passes, however I've improved my pre-shave prep so I don't have to do this anymore.

I used to use the hot towel, then lather up and let my beard soften while stropping, then shave. Now skip the hot towel and just wash my face thoroughly, rub in hair conditioner and let it soften my beard while stropping, then lather up over the hair conditioner and shave. Washing my face turned out to be critical, BTW. I had assumed that this wasn't necessary since I was lathering up with soap, but I was wrong.

I don't think that it's unheard of or even unusual to strop between passes. Likely if your beard is very tough, you will need to strop more often. Poor technique would be more evidenced by, say, skin irritation than a need for more frequent stropping.