Thread: Stropping a full hollow

I managed to get my razor sharp enough to get decent shaves. But I noticed that stropping made it duller instead of sharper.

I analyzed what I was doing exactly, and I think I found my mistake.

I make an X motion over the strop because it is narrower than my razor.
But while I was stropping, I noticed that the light reflected differently from the places where my razor touched the sides of the strop.
During the X motion, these places would travel along the edge, so that they always stayed at the sides of the strop.

My theory is that I used a little too much pressure on the razor. Since it is a 5/8 full hollow, this caused the edge to curve / bend around the sides of the strop. As a result, the very edge of the razor got scraped against the sides of the strop, causing it get duller with each pass instead of sharper.

Does this make sense?

I rehoned my razor, and I use virtually no pressure at all on the strop.
And now I noticed that stropping makes it slightly sharper each time, since the number of places on the edge that pass the HHT increases each time.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I make an X motion over the strop because it is narrower than my razor.
But while I was stropping, I noticed that the light reflected differently from the places where my razor touched the sides of the strop.
During the X motion, these places would travel along the edge, so that they always stayed at the sides of the strop.

Sounds like your strop is curled.

I believe I know what you're describing Bruno and believe also that I have stropped my own razors improperly in just the manner you describe. That all makes total sense to me.

X

the hollower the grind the less pressure on the strop, imo. Also try not to favour the edge more than the spine while stropping.

PuFF

Its all in the wrist as they say. Just a fluid motion with no downwards pressure on the strop.