Thread: Your never to old to learn.

When I started out with the straight and stropping I would hold the linen and strop then the leather and strop. now this was the old barbers strops that were 2-2 1/2 inch wide. now that I have the new SRD English bridle strop with rings on the end for holding without thinking I would hold both at the same time when I stropped. I have done this since 2013. Now I would get an ok shave and the razor was sharp but here lately I would hold just one at a time and I have found that I get a much better shave. it seems like the blade is a bit more shape. now this just might be my imagination but that's what it seems to me. I still rub the leather good with my hand it seems to warm up the leather and might put a little oil from my hand in the leather. I am getting a little dark beginning to show on the linen now and I seem to remember the old barbers using lather on the linen to clean it. has anyone tried this and if now what do you do to get rid of the dark spots on the linen from stropping.

AFAIK the old barbers used lather on the leather, not on the linen. I have washed vintage linens in a bucket with cold water & Woolite if they were lumpy. In general I was never able to get them really clean if they were stained, but that wasn't my purpose.

I've usually held the two components separately, but if it happened to be a strop where one or the other began to swing from side to side I'd hold the two together. I didn't notice a difference in the shave, but it might be that we don't get the strop as taut when holding both together.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-strop.html

It could also be that you're just getting better at things as you gain more experience. But if it works for you, it works for you... Until you decide you want more or you want to experiment again.

If the improvement to your edges were noticeable right after you started holding one strop at a time, it's possible that your are getting more flex in the middle of each strop. That will have the effect of providing better contact with the razor's edge and thus a better stropping effect.