Thread: Absolute beginner stropping question

Yes, keep the spine on the strop, and drag the edge/bevel on the leather, is the best way I can describe it with words. So, any torque generated during your stoke (you always generate some amount of torque, though minimal) should be directed to the edge. You will possibly see or notice this in the Stroptober vids, but you'll only learn it with daily stropping.

+1 on what Jetmech said about rubbing your palm on the strop.

Once you get it, it's amazing what good stropping does to an edge. Good luck.

Originally Posted by griff199

Let me preface this with something you don't often hear on the internet: I'm not an expert in anything I'm about to talk about.

Having said that, it makes sense to me that leather - being a tanned hide - is going to have a "grain" to it, just like our faces do. I have a SRD red latigo and the sound is definitely different on the toward vs away stroke. Now, I've only been stropping correctly (I think) now for about 3 days, so it's certainly not a "broken in" strop (unless you call being sliced 30 times "broken in" )

That makes a lot of sense, and this morning I quit worrying about the sound and stropped it with the spine never leaving the leather. I got my usual great shave.

I have an English Bridle strop, which really has some draw to it in terms of both feel and sound.

Your expertise is underestimated in my opinion. Stropping is probably the "final frontier" I had to master in straight shaving. I've been doing it three years and finally got it down properly within the past month. The sound was the last piece of the puzzle, and I think you were instrumental in answering my remaining question.