Thread: To Strop or not to Strop..that is the question

I have not been using the Strop every day. My shaving results seem fine. What is a good rule of thumb on how often I should Strop my blade?

Every shave, some do before (me included) some do after so the blade is ready for next shave, some do both.

Strop every shave has been the guidance.

Bad stropping would would cause the edge to decline rapidly.
Not stropping or skipping will cause the edge to decline over time - you would probably notice it more if you shaved with a "fresh" edge as comparison.

But as we say, It is your face and your razor, and YMMV...

Smooth Shaving...

Yesterday stropped twenty strokes between xtg and atg in addition to eighty before and twenty after and seemed to make a difference to smoothness of shave.

I strop before and after just because it seems to be the normal thing to do from the experts out there. By that I mean the people that have been doing straights for some time now. Goodluck in your adventure.

as a new guy your experience level hasn't come around yet where you can tell the difference ,, as you get better youll find you can tell ,, and if your blade isn't properly honed and stropped you might not be getting as good a shaves as you think

learn to strop and enjoy the smooth and comfortable , besides it cleans the micro little soap and skin stuff left over from shaving tc

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

as a new guy your experience level hasn't come around yet where you can tell the difference ,, as you get better youll find you can tell ,, and if your blade isn't properly honed and stropped you might not be getting as good a shaves as you think

learn to strop and enjoy the smooth and comfortable , besides it cleans the micro little soap and skin stuff left over from shaving tc

Very well put. bottom line is you need to strop a lot

Stropping isn't considered optional in straight shaving. Kind of like getting ready to use a quality chefs knife. You take it to the steel first.

Perhaps the Thread Title is misleading. I know it has to be done, I just wondered if it was a daily task.

I'm just going to do it every morning.

Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by Augustagj

Perhaps the Thread Title is misleading. I know it has to be done, I just wondered if it was a daily task.

I'm just going to do it every morning.

Thanks for the feedback!

let me just say this, stropping too much is an option, not stopping after or before each shave is not. the edge will deteriorate fast