Thread: Stropping technique fast or slow? use the fabric side or no?

when I was first learning to strop I watched videos on you tube and they all mentioned that the better you get the faster you can go, which is true I have learned to go quite quickly and still produce a nice shaving edge. However, I find that even when I am sure to use the full length of the strop I produce an even sharper edge when I slow it down a bit. I believe that I am placing the edge on the strop more purely than when I am going quickly. Perhaps it is only that I have not refined the technique enough to go quickly. Especially with the fabric side of the strop, I find a nice smooth slow(er) stroke really hones in the edge very nicely as opposed to a quick fast stroke. When I switch to the leather side I go quicker than the fabric side. Also, previously I did not ever use the fabric side and found that after about two weeks of regular shaving that I needed to take it to the stone. When I began using the fabric side I could go about a month without using the stone again and it still had a crisp sharp blade. Now, that is with 50 strokes on the fabric side and about 40 on the leather side directly afterwards. This has produced (for me) better results than even 80 strokes on just the leather side.

Generally go slow to learn, then faster as you gain skill and confidence. I think there are real advantages for using speed while stropping. The main being that a faster stroke from point A to point B on the strop will have a more even and balanced effect on both sides of the blade edge than a slow stroke, thus a better shaving edge.

OTOH, if you think you are getting good results with slower stropping, then who could argue with that? And then again, what you now think is a good shave could still be better yet. So it still could be beneficial to you to strive for more stropping speed as you get better.

I'm a goldilocks stropper, not too fast, not too slow, but just right. Kidding aside, I don't strop near as fast as I can but I don't strop slow either.

I always go linen first if I'm stropping a razor I've shaved with. If it is off the hone I might go linen/leather sometimes but usually leather only. I always do 20 round trips on leather after the shave and drying off the cleaned blade. Just to get any micro gunk out of the bevel the wipe with the tissue might have missed.

Speed is a personal thing. It is my belief (unproven, yet to be tested etc etc) that there is a threshold minimum speed above which there is only very marginal benefit to be gained *by the introduction of extra speed*.

However, I also believe that each person has individual physical characteristics that govern the ergonomics of stropping, and this includes the speed at which they strop. Finding your stropping "sweet spot" will produce benefits and better edges not because of the speed so much, but because there is a rhythm, control, pressure etc that suits you and you alone. All the tiny nuances that click together happen at that spot, and that is what makes good stropping.

And just to add some extra variables into the mix, not only does this sweet spot vary from person to person, it also varies from razor to razor and strop to strop.

Anyway, that is Jimbo's Grand Unfied Theory of Stropping (GUTS). Take it or leave it, it is up to you.

James.

Slow is smooth.
Smooth is fast.


Focus on smooth.

I've ruined two strops learning how to flip the blade and I don't want to flip any more strops because stropping is not a flipping speed contest. Whatever is comfortable that particular day is how fast I strop and flip. Now that I've gotten to a competent level I'm finding out that when I'm stropping at my highest speed I'm not always getting the flipping feedback I need so now I have to slow down enough to flip and listen for draw.

Speed Kills,plain and simple

Yes, we must all find our own way - that is the way of the strop. It is a personal journey and it can defy explanation.

Seriously, stropping is an art. I would say it is more of an art than honing, or at least it holds more weight than honing because everyone has to do it (not everyone has to hone: cf honing services and the lack of stropping services ), and everyone has to do it every time they shave (unlike honing, hopefully!).

In any event, this is why I think we struggle to explain stropping compared to honing. The basic technique is simple enough and well understood, but those nuances depend on the individual. When someone asks "how fast" there is no simple answer - not too slow, but not so fast that you lose control. That's a potentially big range. But the happy thing about it is that so long as the edge is making correct contact and the spine doesn't lift, you'll get some benefit at whatever speed you use in that range. It is just that if you can find your sweet spot you'll get better results.

James.

Technique trumps speed any day of the week.

Being able to keep the spine from leaving the strop when flipping the blade over is what has stabilized my stropping.

Before that I'd get out of sync. I couldn't coordinate the flipping and changing direction. Of course a late flip means you cut the strop.

I've got a new piece of leather on my English Bridle strop and I haven't cut it in a week or two.

It took me harder to learn this than any other aspect of straight shaving.

I haven't tried replacing scales, sanding and shining the blade, and other such things. Yet.