Thread: My First Strop!:)

Dear Fellow Razorheads-After consulting with you all and buying two strops, I wait 48 hours after shaving with my vintage MJung and stropped her. No paste on the felt nor the leather. 30 full strokes on the felt and 5 full strokes on the leather. VERY light pressure! Thank God for You tube! Blade shaves as good as it did on the forearm. Strangely, the edge of the blade closest to the pivot point seems to angle upward a bit-pretty sure that I didn't take any metal off. This is not possible, correct? Anyway, I carefully inserted her back in her pouch for another day of shaving!-Gearhead

Sounds like you did alright but your lap sets seem off. Most do less on the felt and more on the leather.

I would think what you are seeing is just the product of light and metal. But you will know for sure if something happen the next time you shave.

You may want to do more laps on the leather, perhaps as many as 60.

Thanx again guys! I went by one vendors opinion. I did go back to Ebay and noticed on the original pics that the blade does indeed have a slight taper towards the pivot pin . Gonna shave with it tommorrow and see how she does-Gearhead

I THINK it's possible that I may have actually recommended building up to more laps (I think, I can't remember) on another thread??? Did I??? I think for a beginner to start with a lot of laps sorts of begs an error. I do 30/70, normally, but I think that pushing it too much in the begging could be a bad idea for some...

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

I THINK it's possible that I may have actually recommended building up to more laps (I think, I can't remember) on another thread??? Did I??? I think for a beginner to start with a lot of laps sorts of begs an error. I do 30/70, normally, but I think that pushing it too much in the begging could be a bad idea for some...

I think I saw that post and thats what I did. When I first started I nicked my strop up a bit and after reading your post slowed down and built up my strokes. Now I do 5 or 10 on chromium oxide linen strop, 50 on the cotton side of a custom 30 on a leather strop from Fromm and then go back to the custom and do 50 on the leather side which is a very smooth leather. Seems to work well for me so far. Does this seem excessive to you?

I couldn't really comment on the chrome oxide, as I've never used it. I don't think I'd use chrome oxide everyday, though. However, everything about this is so subjective. It gets down to so many variables; and most of us have only shaved ourselves ;-)

If it works for you, keep doing it, or else experiment; maybe try chrome oxide only once a week?

I have a Chromium Oxide Balsa strop, but since I have just started using my blades there's no need for it yet, correct? Just doing my strops slowly and carefully, as instructed. Been watching a really good video on Youtube and using it as my guide-Gearhead222

Originally Posted by gearhead222

I have a Chromium Oxide Balsa strop, but since I have just started using my blades there's no need for it yet, correct? Just doing my strops slowly and carefully, as instructed. Been watching a really good video on Youtube and using it as my guide-Gearhead222

Yeah, as long as you're stropping before every shave, you shouldn't have to use the CrOxthat often. I think I end up using it once every 10-15 shaves IIRC....

Thanx again guys! Great forum!-Gearhead222