Thread: Advice on Strops / Sprays

Hi all,

Just a few quick questions about strop and spray media selection to make sure I’m understanding everything on the wiki. I’ve been wet shaving for 2 years, started off with disposable straights and then about a year after went to DE for time savings. I finally missed the straights so much that I just bit the bullet and purchased a custom Sheffield restoration and now I need a good strop setup.

I’ve had regular straights before (ended up as re-scaling attempts gone bad, another story altogether) that I used for about 6 months with a paddle strop before switching to DE. So I’m familiar with stropping, at least on a paddle. I gave the paddle strop to a buddy after talking him into wet shaving, so now I’m looking at hanging strops.

I wanted to get into honing but am not quite ready to invest the time to learn, my wife and I are pretty busy with 3 kids. Therefore, I’m looking at getting the wool felt strops from SRD with sprays for when I need to freshen up the edge. Right now I’m looking at the .5 micron diamond spray for one (I’m thinking 10-15 laps weekly, is that about right?) followed by the Chromium Oxide .5 Micron Spray on the other (20-30 laps same frequency). Is this the right way to use these as sharpening media?

As for the leather strops, I went back and forth between a Bison Made horsehide and a SRD English Bridle, eventually settling on the latter because of the higher draw. I think it’s about 10-15 laps twice weekly on the webbing, and from what I can remember, 20-30 before and after on the leather. Am I ballpark or way off?

The forums and the wiki have been a great resource; I just want to make sure that I’m getting the right equipment, and that I have a good idea of how and how often to use it. I know enough to know I don’t know enough haha. Anyway, any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help!

There are people that keep their razors sharp with just chromium oxide (often called crox) or diamonds. I don't know if you need both, I think getting 1 micron diamonds and 0.5 crox is more complementary.

As for stropping, most people do 30-60 laps on fabric and 40-60 on leather before each shave. Personally, I'm around 50 canvas and 50 leather. After the shave, I dry my razor with a towel and 5-10 laps on canvas to remove the last microscopic drops on the edge.

I wouldn't use any sharpening media on my razors on any fixed schedule. It's an as needed basis.

I do 60 passes on leather and around 10 on fabric before each shave.

Ah I see, so I was way off in the frequency. So you think that it would be better to get the 1.0 micron diamond spray, I see your point. Should that be on felt or webbing or what? Thanks for the tips!

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I wouldn't use any sharpening media on my razors on any fixed schedule. It's an as needed basis.

I do 60 passes on leather and around 10 on fabric before each shave.

+1 to all of this. Because you have already developed your straight shaving technique, you shouldn't need to use crox for a while. The 10-15 on the fabric both cleans and helps to maintain to edge, along with proper stropping. You'd only need to do a few laps on crox once the edge starts to pull, and isn't being brought back with the fabric and leather stropping.

Originally Posted by plwolfe

Ah I see, so I was way off in the frequency. So you think that it would be better to get the 1.0 micron diamond spray, I see your point. Should that be on felt or webbing or what? Thanks for the tips!

I'd go with crox, but that's just me. Felt or webbing doesn't matter really...I personally have webbing but I'd just any other material component just the same without any bias.