Thread: the ideal strop?

Hardblues: Very helpful post. After reading it, I am sure of one thing - that my technique could use a lot of work!! I have not put nearly as much work as you have into my stropping. I think after reading all the posts so far I will not buy a new strop right now. Working on my technique seems like the way to go and hopefully this will pay off regardless of which strop I buy in the future. Thanks!
Jeff

Originally Posted by hardblues

I'll humbly weigh in...both of my leathers are SRD...starting about 7/8 years ago, my first was the Latigo and served me fine w/good shaves. Unfortunately, my initial stropping wasn't up to par and resulted in nicks at both ends of the strop which means I was as unskilled on the to-stroke as the away-stroke...consistent at least. Instead of purchasing a replacement leather, I just more carefully shortened my strokes with more care and this leads me to my point. I decided that rather than continue my poor technique until it was engrained, I would perfect my technique and took an old razor I purchased off of ebay, dulled the edge and then each night, I would slowly go thru a couple hundred slow perfect repetitions, flipping the razor between my index and thumb instead of rotating my wrist, which, is the correct method according to the pros. I continued doing this until I no longer regressed into the wrist-twist...also, when you do it this way, it greatly assists in reduced pressure, whereas the wrist twist can result in too much pressure and inconsistent flat contact. Now, I'm not saying your technique is bad...I have no idea, but, throw that out as it greatly helped me. I now own a English bridle from SRD...love it...I would agree with Hirlau in saying the latigo and the kangaroo, (which I have no experience with), would do everything you or I would want...with good technique.

The only difference between strops I've found is with a high draw type, the feedback after proper honing is a bit different.

Update: I've been practicing my stopping, mostly on the SRD hanging strop, and its been a lot of fun trying to improve. My shaves have improved noticably, but I still have a long way to go. Thanks for all the advice!! But thinking I might get the Roo straop just for fun.

I find the English leather on my SRD modular strop works great. The hard surface enables me to do less laps and gives a great edge.

Hi jkatzman,
I ordered the Englishleather for my modular paddle strop and have used it a few times now. I really like the feel and you're right - it gives a vert nice edge. I have to get the paddle strop motion more committed to muscle memory, but I can tell the English leather is a winner. Thanks a lot!

Update: I've been using both the SRD modular paddle with the Englishleather and a 3" Heirloom Artisan Premium Fast Bridle Strop "Old No 2" by Tony Miller for stropping all my straights. Slowly improving my technique on both. I find my hollow ground SRs to be more difficult to keep flat on the hanging strop (something I need to work on), so I have been mostly stropping those on the paddle. My wedges seem to work equally well on the hanging strop or the paddle. For touching up, I use a setup I got from Ken Schwartz - kangaroo on glass with 0.5um BCN spray. Thanks for everybody's posts!