Newb Strop Boasting: Long-Lasting Edges

Since we're all talking about stropping being king...

I had had Lynn hone me up two razors in early September. At this point, I am past the 40-shave mark on each razor, and I'm pleased to report that they are both going strong. They still pass my HHT, and still give very close, comfortable shaves.

I'm jazzed about this because it means that I'm definitely not killing my edges either with my stropping or with my shaving. So, as the shaves begin to deteriorate, I'll know that it's just plain, unavoidable wear that is bringing me back to the hone. Woo-hoo!

My strop is a low-end Illinois job (207), and the blades are Solingen (a new Dovo and an ebay Wester Bros.). My stropping routine is basically:
1) 10 light laps on the leather just to gentle the fin into decent alignment;
2) 20 laps on the linen, starting with gentle pressure and easing to light;
3) 30 laps on the leather, enough pressure to feel the draw, and easing to light;
4) 7 laps before the third, against-the-grain pass, for maximum smoothness;
5) 7-10 laps after cleaning and drying the blade.

Little victories, gradually acumulated, are what makes this great. Times like this make me confident that someday, I might even hone competently!

Deepweeds

Congrats on the stropping success!
It definitely makes the maintenance routine more appealing seeing how you've been able to bypass regular honing :y

How about this routine for maintenance:
1) 10 strokes on the linen
2) 30 strokes on the leather
every shave

+

3) 5-10 strokes on the pasted strop/bench-hone or the fine finisher every 10 shaves.

Guess which method's quicker.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

How about this routine for maintenance:
1) 10 strokes on the linen
2) 30 strokes on the leather
every shave

+

3) 5-10 strokes on the pasted strop/bench-hone or the fine finisher every 10 shaves.

Guess which method's quicker.

---

Ilija-

What kind of paste? Do you use .5 diamond paste or something else on your pasted strop?

Second question - why 10 on the linen and 30 on the leather? I'm curious because so many people have different experiences and I'm trying to learn as much as I can so when I get a hanging strop I have someplace to start.

Ilija makes a good point, that at some stage the gymnastics one is willing to go through to avoid a few laps on the hone can become ridiculous. For me, right now, I'm all too aware that my honing skills are iffy: I have about a 50% chance of producing a serviceable edge, and a 50% chance of slipping up and killing the edge. This is a big motivator for getting by on the strop for as long as possible.

What I _ought_ to have been doing these months, while shaving and stropping with professionally-honed razors, is practicing on a couple of ebay specials, so as to get over my shyness with the hone. (Ever notice that the only real lessons are the result of hindsight?)

I think Ilija has a good suggestion, and it's more along traditional lines.

The initial 10 laps on the leather are not a good idea. I don't know what they accomplish because you're going to the linnen afterwards. Also, one of the functions of linnen is to clean the blade before you go to leather. You're defeating that.

It doesn't seem like your beard is placing much of a burden on the blade. THe mid-shave strop is for guys who's beards are so tough that the edge starts to deteriorte befor ethe shave is over. It can't hurt, and it's good insurance that your post shave stropping won't do any harm.

The sweet spot for stropping is 45 reps, and anything over 60 won't benefit unless you do a lot (hundreds) to get a sharpening effect.

The suggestion to refresh the razor is also good, but it seems like you can go for a long time before you need it. So every ten shaves maybe too frequent for you (again, it can't hurt, but why wear the razor unnecessarily or do unnecessary work?). See how long it takes before stropping doesn't restore sharpness (just a little increase in pull), and that when you should refresh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deepweeds

Ilija makes a good point, that at some stage the gymnastics one is willing to go through to avoid a few laps on the hone can become ridiculous. For me, right now, I'm all too aware that my honing skills are iffy: I have about a 50% chance of producing a serviceable edge, and a 50% chance of slipping up and killing the edge. This is a big motivator for getting by on the strop for as long as possible.

---

From what I've seen, more newbies mess up an edge on the strop than the hone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steve

Ilija-

What kind of paste? Do you use .5 diamond paste or something else on your pasted strop?

Second question - why 10 on the linen and 30 on the leather? I'm curious because so many people have different experiences and I'm trying to learn as much as I can so when I get a hanging strop I have someplace to start.

---

Steve,
I use a mix of 0.5 micron abrasive powder (from HA) and strop paste as the abrasive.
When I started learning 10/20 was the accepted amount of pre-shave stropping. As my speed naturally increased to the level of 10 extra strokes not really taking any additional time and people started talking about the benefits of more strokes, I decided to hedge my bets and do 30 instead od 20 on the leather. I'm not sure if there are any real benefits but I don't lose anything by doing it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by deepweeds

Ilija makes a good point, that at some stage the gymnastics one is willing to go through to avoid a few laps on the hone can become ridiculous. For me, right now, I'm all too aware that my honing skills are iffy: I have about a 50% chance of producing a serviceable edge, and a 50% chance of slipping up and killing the edge. This is a big motivator for getting by on the strop for as long as possible.

What I _ought_ to have been doing these months, while shaving and stropping with professionally-honed razors, is practicing on a couple of ebay specials, so as to get over my shyness with the hone. (Ever notice that the only real lessons are the result of hindsight?)

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Everybody makes rookie mistakes and I'm sure you can't beat mine... I started SHAVING with a Zeepk :eek: 4 scars later, I found the SRP :y
What's good about refreshing the edge on a bench hone or a paddle strop is that you're using a stropping motion and it's very difficult to overhone if you're careful about it. You could be getting great results without a huge learning effort.