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

I'm very new to this and bought a shave ready razor from a reputable source. I found my first shave with this did pull a little, but not as much as my cartridge razor on hair the same length. Of course I thought this was fantastic. Before my next shave I practiced the stropping movement before moving on to strop the razor and it went well, but still the same slight pulling. Because the shave had been like this from the start I thought I was doing well, until yesterday...

Yesterday a bit of forum browsing reminded me of the need for a light touch and plenty of strokes. I really tried hard to have the least pressure possible, got that nice hiss on the strop and went for 60 strokes. This took an age of man because of my inexperience, but it was worth it. The razor was like a knife through butter, no pulling at all. I thought at first I'd blunted it and it was just sliding over the hair until I felt my skin. Amazing.

For beginners my advice is: you don't know a sharp razor until you've tried one, so if it pulls it probably isn't, even if it's better than a cartridge. Mine passed the HHT at the start, but I'm not sure now that this is foolproof as a way of testing 'shave ready'. 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!

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?

Congrats....I had the same revelation the first time I properly stropped my razor. Even with a shave ready razor, stropping is extremely important.

That's why we say shaving is the real test of a razor. We all have our favorite test we use when honing to give us a gauge if the edge appears to be ready however a razor can either pass or fail our favorite test and either shave or not shave.

I've always said the ultimate definition of a shave ready razor is if you were blindfolded and someone ran the razor down your face and you couldn't even tell someone was doing that yet the whiskers were gone. Few razors actually meet that standard but they should come darn close.

I suspect many guys put up with sub par shaves because they simply don't have a clue.

Stropping can make or break the shave. 60 laps daily for me and the edge lasts a long time between touchups.

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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!

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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.

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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?

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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.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I've always said the ultimate definition of a shave ready razor is if you were blindfolded and someone ran the razor down your face and you couldn't even tell someone was doing that yet the whiskers were gone. Few razors actually meet that standard but they should come darn close.

I suspect many guys put up with sub par shaves because they simply don't have a clue.

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Thanks for this and thanks also to DDTech for your comments on 'shave ready'. It sounds like, sadly, you could be putting up with mediocre and think it's great if you don't know what great really feels like. The description you make here is really helpful (though I won't be closing my eyes to test it just yet...and I don't quite trust my good lady enough for her to try it out either :) ). This is the beginners problem, you just don't know until you get experienced enough so stick at it and keep striving!

Rgds

Apis

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I suspect many guys put up with sub par shaves because they simply don't have a clue.

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You have been so reading my mail lol!!!

When I began, I really was into knowing how sharp my blade was lol. It was seemingly always dull! I lived with it. Probably because at the time I focused so much on HHT's and hones. Stropping was just something one did lol. "I simply didn't have a clue" lol. It took me forever to get half decent at stropping (and a few strops to boot). It took me even longer to see the real value in it!!

Now I couldn't care about any tests other than the shaving test, and stropping has become Key lol!

What I learned back some when I did the stropping experiment was you can really get used to a deteriorating razor as long as it happens slowly. I used three razors two TI SRP razors and a third which was pretty close and I just used those three for months shaving every day and stropping only. Towards the end I took a break and used another razor and wow what a difference.