Thread: Best height to hang strop?

18*20 inches of para cord or shoelace, loop around a doorknob, perfect height.

As a beginner, I started out stropping right around doorknob height given that was the most common starting point.

A couple of years ago I reevaluated my entire stropping technique and wound up with a considerably uphill position. Simultaneously deciding to really master the X-stroke pattern (racetrack was tedious, and w-wiper did not feel effective enough IMHO) revealed more consistent laps for me with the higher mount without sacrificing that much ergonomically. Yes, I'm fighting gravity much more, but it's not like I have an 8-hour shift of barbering to contend with in my decision.

I even play with tilting the strop sideways (right-side aimed downward since I strop right-handed) to better match the strop angle with that of my forearm. Still working on my ability to get the feel of the return stroke of the razor to match as nicely to that of the away stroke. It seems to require more concentration for me than the actual shave! lol

For me it's level at doorknob height, but I can definitely see the merits of uphill stropping, and plan to try it.

Like gasman, I stand off to the side of my strop. This allows me a light, even, quick stroke up and down the whole length of the strop, kind of going side to side in front of me. I would think the same thing could be accomplished standing directly in front of a strop that is hung high, going up and down rather than side to side as I do.

Like Speedster, I also sometimes tilt the strop surface to face slightly toward me to get a more natural angle to how I hold the razor to the strop. And here I thought that was *my* secret move, lol.

And like Euclid440, I love the handiness of attaching a strop to any doorknob I choose with paracord, so I can strop almost anywhere I want. I used to use leather cord, but paracord is more stable, compresses less, and is cheaper.

I also use a "Half-X" stroke, starting with the razor high (toe off the strop, heel in the middle of the strop width) at the beginning of the stroke, finishing with the toe of the razor in the middle of the width of the strop, heel off the strop. Then I flip the razor, and keeping the angle of the razor the same throughout the stroke, do the opposite on the way back up. Over a full back and forth stroke, the full length of both sides of the razor get even coverage. For me, eliminating the wrist gyrations and blade angle changes involved in the full-x-stroke allows me to keep a consistent light and fast stroke, without any slapping and less risk of nicking the strop with a sloppy turn.

I tend to use narrower 2" and 2.5" strops because I can feel the blade on them better and they don't cup as easily as wider strops, so the half-x stroke kind of grew out of that. When I use a 3" strop, I do tend to use the full x-stroke.

I hang mine on the towel bar, height is around 45-48”. I like the strop pointing uphill a bit, I lock my strop forearm into my side as I tend to get lazy with it and end up with slack in the strop towards the end of my stropping otherwise. I would always hang my strop at elbow height or above, much more natural feeling for me.

It's interesting the variety of height preferences (level vs. uphill). Our shower has a vertical grab bar. I might tie a hitch onto it with some para cord, leaving enough length to clip the strop well outside the shower. Then I can just slide it up and down until I find the height I like best.

While stropping prior to my last shave, it occurred to me that I neglected to mention that I also stand to the right side of my strop. Tried a few strokes standing directly in front of the mount point and immediately felt awkwardness.

That's why everyone here essentially says do what works best for you. Using paracord to give you the ability to slide up/down on a vertical bar sounds like a great way to figure out where your comfort zone is for stropping.

I stand to the right as well and like stropping slightly uphill in most cases but am finding going downhill just seems better for me now. Oddly though with a paddle I have always stropped slightly downhill instead with the tip of the paddle resting on a table or counter.

I have seen videos of barbers with the strop on the side of the chair stropping downhill.

Some of that appears to be more of spine slapping theatrics for the customer though......