Thread: Sound of stropping

Silly question but...

When I strop, the sound it makes is certainly different on one side of the blade than the other. I have chalked this up to the blade orientation but it COULD also be an indication that my technique is different in one direction than the other. Is it typical that the "away" pass on the strop sound different from the "toward" pass on the strop?

I've always associated this with uneven hand pressure. You can emphasize the difference if you flip your wrist while stropping rather than the razor (proof that doing so is a bad idea). I once saw a gentleman associate this sound with the grain direction of the strop, but I flipped my strop and found the sound to be identical.
If you are concerned with your stropping, and are planning on making the meet, we can assess your stropping technique.

Another possibility is that the material of the strop has a directional texture which sounds different for each direction.

hmm - so are you saying that if you concentrate you can actually get it to sound the same in both directions? I figured that the direction of the hollow would influence how it sounds...

The last possibility is it could be natural acoustics. To test go very slow with even pressure both ways. If it sounds the same it is probably a problem when you speed up. If you hear a difference it is probably sound reverberating differently on going and coming back.

Originally Posted by EggSuckingLeech

Silly question but...

When I strop, the sound it makes is certainly different on one side of the blade than the other. I have chalked this up to the blade orientation but it COULD also be an indication that my technique is different in one direction than the other. Is it typical that the "away" pass on the strop sound different from the "toward" pass on the strop?

I think the sound should be the same on both sides. In fact, I use the sound as my guide to determine if I am stropping properly.

OK - I tried to consciously make the sound the same on both directions. I can do it but I need to concentrate. If this is "supposed to happen" then this is a pretty valuable lesson for me because I must lose my angle as the blade is drawn toward me.

I just blame the doppler effect and try not to worry about it.

It is suppose to sound similar. For example you shouldn't here a scraping sound one way and a ting sound the other. But as long as they are both scrapping sounds and generally similar you are fine. Going slow and keeping them very similar will allow you to gain muscle memory and will allow you to speed up.

Originally Posted by Cangooner

I just blame the doppler effect and try not to worry about it.

Now THAT's some quick stropping!