Thread: What a difference a good stropping makes for a beginner...

Originally Posted by Apis

...For beginners my advice is: you don't know a sharp razor until you've tried one, ... Be very gentle when you strop and even if it takes ages and your women folk start shouting at you to hurry up do plenty of strokes!

Very good, yes stropping is highly important and it can have an enormous effect in both directions. Do it right, and You'll have a lot of fun with Your Edge, do it wrong and You're out of the game.

Originally Posted by Apis

And I hope more experienced members can comment on this: Shave ready may not mean shave ready, it may mean honed and stropped to HHT but not 'shave', if there is a difference?

HHT, HHT, HHT.... Everybody goes frantic about the HHT. Yes, it's a cool thing and yes, a razor must be able to split hair, but ... <Long list why it's rubbish to use it as an indicator for shave readyness, especially for beginners>.
An experienced person can read some information from a hair test, but not necessary about shave readiness. Even superexperienced guys like Lynn or gssixgun, having done thousands of razors, say, the only true test is to actually do shave with it - thebigspendur has said it already.

I know about DOVO razors, that they need to pass the HHT, before they leave the factory. They use artificial hair (so at least standardized) and the person does probably a hundred or more each day (standardized method). Still, I can't properly shave with a DOVO, in ex-works-state. Lovely razor when it has been introduced to my stones, but before that, to me it is not ready, may it have passed HHT or not.