Thread: Strop tension & blade pressure...

I just recently started leaving the strop a little slack. I saw a video of an old time barber stropping. He had this thing real loose. So I figured I would try a little first. Haven't noticed any changes which is a good thing, at least I didn't roll it.

With strop tension I was trying too hard at the beginning to keep it absolutely taught which doesn't help in stropping in the long run. Relax a little and use just enough weight/pull to take the slack out of it. Having a just little deflection of the strop while stropping doesn't seem to hurt a bit. Then just glide/guide the blade back and forth along the strop with virtually no downward pressure on the blade. Well, at least that is the way I do it.

Bob