Originally Posted by
Jimbo
Honestly, there's the theory and there's the practice.
We can argue the theory of metal realignment forever (and as I alluded to in an earlier post in this thread, seems we are well on the way...).
However, practice is what we do. Every day. The empirical evidence (which must be in the hundreds of thousands of man-hours) our collective membership has collected over the past 10 or so years of this Forum's life tells us that you can happily strop your razor immediately before and immediately after a shave with no ill effects.
I myself did a basic experiment on this early on (an unwitting experiment, but an experiment nonetheless). For about 5 years I only stropped before a shave, never after, which meant my rotation razors always had at least 3 days "rest" post shave. Then in recent years I started stropping pre and post shave, using the same razor for at least 5 weeks in a row (in fact, I've been shaving with this current razor for about 3 months every day, face and head). I've found no discernible difference between my old way or this current way in terms of edge longevity or shaving efficacy.
YMMV, but mine doesn't! :D
James.