Thread: Stropping mid-shave????

Hi folks,

I am new to using a straight razor. To date, I have had three shaves with a brand new and professionally honed SR. Note that I have a very tough and dense Middle-Eastern beard. I believe I have gotten better and improved my shaving results each time although I am far from results I get from multi-blades.

What I have noticed that I manage to cut myself and have considerable difficulty in the middle of my second pass. The problem is worse around my lips, chin, and mustache areas. The blade appears to pull and does not glide easily on my skin.

Here's my question: Would you think stropping in the middle of my shave would help? Is it normal to have to strop the SR in the middle of shave? Would that help? Or is it that I am having trouble because of my bad technique around my lips and chin?

I would appreciate the benefit of your collective wisdom.

I would say it is a technique issue!
Once you get that up to a proper level, you shouldn't have to re-strop in the middle of the shave.
Given of course a truly shave ready blade and a good prep of your beard.
There are many guys on here with real heavy bears and most seem to get on just fine without it.
Keep at it, focus on really good prep and my bet is, you'll get there pretty soon

will it help yes. In real time you shouldn't strop in the middle of the shave.
there is some part technique and your tough beard plays role and rest belongs to edge is almost over honed stage.
This type edge won't last longer.
Try use scything( i think this is wrong to tell newbie to use this method).
and better preparation.

Just to hitchhike for a second, I have re-stropped in mid-shave hoping it would help. And at the time, maybe it did. At least it didn't hurt. But once my technique improved, I found re-stropping unnecessary. Hope that helps.

Bruce

If you have a thick beard , you may need to strop mid shave . If it helps , then by all means , do it . You might want to get another razor , and strop both of them before you shave . Then when the first razor starts pulling , you can switch to the second razor . I also think that as you gain experience you will find it unnecessary to strop mid-shave , but until then , keep on stropping . BTW , are you stretching your skin as you shave ?

I have a Shavette I only use on the mustache/chin area, the size is easier to manage for me and I am always sure that the blade is fresh and shave ready. you can give that a try and see if everything improves

I can always use my Merkur 11C, 38C, 39C, Futur, or Parker 99R for that but I would like to learn to shave with the SR.

OK folks, I started shaving my three-day old beard with a perfectly honed and stropped razor. All went well in the first two passes (WTG, XTG). On the third pass (XTG), I cut myself several times above and below my lips. I stropped the blade about 20 times and the blade was just fine again.

Check out this thread on B&B. I think there are others who have the same problem and need to strop mid-shave.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=3067888

Cheers,

You shouldn't "need" to strop your blade during a shave unless there some problems with the blade, however I've stropped a razor a little before making my final pass when going for that ultra-smooth shave. The one thing that I am concerned about is that you may be using too much blade angle. This will really effect the edge on the razor & dull it much quicker. It's like a scraping action if you are using too much angle. The other part is that you are obviously in the learning stage and in a few weeks you will wonder why you were having such issues. Keep the pressure light and shave on....

The razor itself may also be a variable. If you have access to other razors to try you could possibly eliminate that factor.