Thread: Strop or not

It's pretty simple for me. A good egde off a stone is improved by stropping so stropping means you take the best edge possible to your face. No brainer

Stropping is essential to maintaining an excellent edge. If one gets better results straight off the stones, it's time to improve one's stropping technique and/or one's strop.

Stropping is essential to maintaining an excellent edge. If one gets better results straight off the stones, it's time to improve one's stropping technique and/or one's strop.[/QUOTE]

Very well said! Tc

I would agree that a minimum number of stropping laps are all that's needed when honing to a 30k level but some stropping is always better than no stropping.

I believe it's best for the life of the razor to only remove metal from the edge when necessary. This amount of metal may be insignificant, but none the less, why hone when you can strop..?

Originally Posted by entropy1049

I believe it's best for the life of the razor to only remove metal from the edge when necessary. This amount of metal may be insignificant, but none the less, why hone when you can strop..?

Great point. This is why we still have razors pushing 200 years old for reasonable prices. If folks were honing rather than stropping, these razors would be rare and very expensive.

Strop is the lattest and the finest tune of the edge .
There is not a question a strop or not . Definetly yes . Hwo told you that you need it is luyng to you .
You definetly need a strop q a coton or linen or denim from an old jeans , but definetly will boost the best edge from a stone
You need to strop your razor no mater you touch up or not . The only way to not strop is to not use the razor .

Originally Posted by jkatzman

I tried it without stropping then with 10-15 strops after and before and I think the 10-15 strops does gives a better shave. When I went back to the 40-60 I found the results were not as good as the 10-15 strops. I use a SRD modular strop. His more laps really necessary or needed. Open to your opinions.

Well, there you have your answer. May be no stropping works for him, but if it doesn't work for you there is no reason to get inferior shaves just because somebody says that a different routine works great for him.

Stropping on leather before shaving is the standard practice that hasn't changed for over 200 years. I suppose the argument is that 12k, 16k, or 30k grit hones are the new invention that obsoletes stropping, but those have been around for the last decade and if that were the case chances are we'd have a good number of highly experienced people reach the same conclusion, which isn't the case.

I watched the same vid and thought about it, but I still strop. I admit over time I do not do as many laps. I went to doing around 20/40 laps to 15/30. Sometimes, I might just do 10/20. I think you can go straight from the stones and shave with a razor too, but where is the fun in that. The only thing we have is anecdotal evidence, albeit a lot of anecdotal evidence of the efficacy of stropping. Like others have said, do what works for you.

I hesitate to mention the hanging hair test due to how frequently it is misused and misinterpreted by beginners who have absolutely no d&mn business attempting or interpreting it, but I have found that the HHT is always (ALWAYS) improved by stropping, regardless of which finishing hone I use.