Thread: Newbie strop/paste explanation

Toroo - first off - bravo for taking the plunge into quality shaving. I think you'll thank yourself.

There's lots of use for a strop - but the focus when learning is how to use linen and leather that is clean and free from pastes or abrasive sprays. The finer points seem to have lots of controversy and strong opinions, but few would argue that learning to strop well with untreated material is the first job w/ a strop.

Linen - or what the marketing types now pass off as linen, seems to have had two functions. a) clean any residual gunk (soap scum mixed w/ scraped skin cells) from the blade so that it doesn't initiate rust & pitting and b) it sharpens (a little) and straightens out the edge that has become stretched and wavy from shaving.

Leather - most all kinds - polishes the edge, which imparts additional feeling of sharpness and the smooth, polished surface gives less opportunity for invasion by moisture. An edge that's slightly harsh from honing, can often be smoothed out by some time on leather.

Controversies abound, but for now - those are a distraction from the job at hand of learning to strop your edges well. Probably the best thread I've seen on it was Glen's a couple yrs back: http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...ch-2011-a.html

I don't hide the fact that I *SUCKED* at stropping when I started out. I destroyed 5 strops. It did not come easily for me. The leather butchery was mostly from not knowing that it was impossible to come to a dead stop at the end of a stroke. The other culprit was the small razor (4/8) on latigo. Latigo can get 'grabby', suddenly having a large increase in friction that grabs the spine, rotates the blade over on the spine - sending the edge into the surface of your leather. Sigh. You'll undoubtedly do better than I did.

You'll soon be posting about how much you LOVE your shaves. That will put a big smile on my face. Enjoy!