Thread: Strop in between each client?

Originally Posted by DennisBarberShop

Ive been a sr user for 15 years, as long as I have been a barber, and ive never found any difference by leaving one sit, under a loupe letting it sit always shows a white film of oxidation on the edge if anything. Pretty sure it is an old wives tale.

I can only tell what I personally feel. (and a bit i heard somewhere)
But ok we all have opinions and diffrent experiences.

Dries

Yeah, not implying you are wrong as ive heard the same

Originally Posted by Kerrie

Thank you so much! I only did about 20 on the linen and 60 on the leather. Like I said, I won't be using it on clients much but wanted to make sure I was at least doing it right.

Old school... ;-)

Strop the razor fresh for each use. If needed go back to the strop or switch to a
second razor.

Back in the 50s my barber shop had four or five razors for each barber.
Laid out flat on a clean towel.
About half were hanging in jars of blue Barbicide he also had ultra-violet sterilizer.

Mostly they would strop on leather only. Canvas/ linen was used once in ten
once in five trips to the strop.

I was a kid so I have no idea what he did to hone his razors.

90% was timing... of the lather.
They would gather some warm lather from the magic machine
and apply it to the back of my neck and fuzzy sides.

While the lather was doing its magic the barber would select then
strop a razor.

They would then wipe a small bit of lather away and then shave
to get a nice trim edge. If the first touch was not "sharp" the
razor was set down, fresh lather applied and back to the strop or
back to select a second razor.

This is a long way of saying that "doing it right" includes lather, soak time,
stropping and a critical gentle touch and feel by the barber.

In other old posts I once tried to make a point that knowing what
dull is, is as important as knowing what sharp is.

Originally Posted by Dries

Well once you used a razor it is best to let it rest for 24 to 48 hours. This let's the microparticles on the edge settle back into shape.
It is better for the steal and your client. Most old barbers had more than one razor (something like 20). So every client had a new razor...

This one is fun....
There is a lot that can happen at the microscopic level in 24 hours.
If a rest works for your razor you are golden.

My old school barbers had four or five razors visible to me and would rotate between them after
a short soak in blue stuff after using on a customer, a rinse in hot tap water and air dry.

Sanitation by barbers was often better than sanitation by surgeons as best I can tell
from US Civil war accounts. More soap, more lathering, more water....

Soap and water are a good thing.

EDIT: modern sanitation tells us that they (old school barbers)
only had part of the picture... your health department may have
more modern or restrictive rules behind a barbers license.

Amazon.com: Andis 12750 Cool Care Plus, 15.5 oz: Health & Personal Care

Originally Posted by gfro

Amazon.com: Andis 12750 Cool Care Plus, 15.5 oz: Health & Personal Care

Not a fan of these newer spray products, cool care caused some oxidation on my blades from long term use....the old original cool lube was best, but cool lube 3 causes oxidation as well, but only around the moving blade where the metal slides. Still hard to beat rubbing alcohol and a wipe of oil. Or even better, barbicide kills bacteria in seconds.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

EDIT: modern sanitation tells us that they (old school barbers)
only had part of the picture... your health department may have
more modern or restrictive rules behind a barbers license.

Health department has nothing to do with barber shops in most states, there are barber board appointed inspectors....ill post a pic of an inspection report tomorrow and how it is scored. Dry sanitation can be either uv sterilization, or an enclosed cabinet (like the old barber cabinets) with formaldehyde tablets in them (found to cause cancer so not as common as they use to be), or wet sanitation (the good old barbicide, or blue stuff in the jar as the technical term haha)

I learned of the "resting" idea from Japanese Cutlery School* (not a real one, the one i created like a Borg when i started using Japanese Cutlery) And there I thought it was taught to let a knife rest a day post-sharpening, not post use. But I dunno maybe i was passin' notes in class that day.

But in that case it made sense to me to allow oxidation to "seal the edge" for less contamination of the fish by the metal. They want edges as polished as possible to do less damage the food as it is sliced...ramble yadda.

Yes, you'll see oxidation, that's one of the main reasons for pre-shave stropping. And yes, SS oxidizes too.

AS to professional use and regs, I'll leave that to those who are toting licenses issued by their jurisdictions. It's part of their job to know the rules they are operating under.

And in my lifetime, I've had three barbers use a straight-type blade on my neck. One stropped. And I didn't have a clue what all that leather whoopin' was about. He did it after too!

Oh how we learn.

Ive always wondered why its infered that a replaceable blade shavette is more sanitary than a real straight razor, im no micro biologist working for the CDC but I would assume there are far more nooks and crannies between the blade and the blade sleeve on a shavette for bacteria/viruses to hide than a fully exposed straight razor blade even if you constantly sanitize and replace a shavettes blade

Personally even though in the past my old barbers used traditional straight razors for giving their clients a neck shave and picking off a few stray hairs around your ears after the cut, but given the fact that with the rise of HIV and Hepatitis I wouldn't want a barber using a traditional straight on me I don't care how good your hygiene is.