Thread: How much damage can a nO0b do when stropping?

Originally Posted by Badgister

I am often in Astoria! I love the place.

I'm there all the time! my father and others in my family still live there. Will be there tomorrow! Where do you live that you're there often?

Originally Posted by MikekiM

I seem to recall a discussion about rolling the edge.. The suggestion was made to VERY LIGHTLY explore the edge from spine towards to the bevel, using the tip of a straight pin. Is it that slight that you can't feel it with a finger nail or finger or see it with a loupe?

What kind of loupe do you use?
Mine is actually a small microscope (or so it says on the side) magnifies up to x45 and has a little LED for light. I've found that if I can't see anything wrong at that magnification
a good stropping will usually sort it out.

I see a lot of people talking about going slow when they strop. In my experience if you go TOO slow that's not good either. For me at least some of my muscles would tense up (this doesn't sound completely right, feels like I'm looking for another word) because they were kept almost stationary and because others were used in ways they weren't used to. Either way, both of those would cause a very small and almost unnoticeable trembling, making it all that harder to strop. I then tried going a little faster and things actually got a lot better.
I'm not saying you should just go as fast as you can and hope for the best but it shouldn't take 5 minutes to strop before shaving either.
Something that's helped me with my stropping was to get some CrOx somewhere, put it on the back of an old belt and start stropping your kitchen knives. It's not exactly the same but it helped me develop a better feel for what I was doing and in the end both my razors and my kitchen knives are better for it.

Phew! That went on longer than I had anticipated.

Fear is the enemy of good stropping.

Originally Posted by anthogia

I'm there all the time! my father and others in my family still live there. Will be there tomorrow! Where do you live that you're there often?

Thread Hijack, but my Girlfriend lives in Astoria a couple blocks off Ditmars blvd, I'll be there for the 4th weekend!

And another thread hijack, I'm in Brooklyn, but like the Greek girls of Astoria. Oh yeah and I'm decent with a strop, haven't nicked it in almost a year.

Not the answer you were looking for perhaps, but a valid answer (and a funny/sad story).

A certain person who will remain unnamed (but he is typing this) took delivery of a beautiful semi-custom 7/8 square as a noob and in his attempts to strop faster (like the cool kids do), fumbled and dropped the razor. It cut a hole in the shower mat and ruined the spike.

The good news is I danced and kept my feet out of harms way. The better news is, I was able to repair the tip and re-hone the razor.

So how much damage can a noob do with a strop? It depends on how well you listen to the advice that slow is smooth and smooth is fast (or however Glen said it).