Thread: Quick Question

I bought a nice 2" strop off the internet, nowhere near SRD quality, but nice nonetheless. The question I have is that I heard you have to make an "x" pattern when stropping with a 2" strop, but I have recently been stropping one half of the blade 30 passes, and the other half 30 passes for fear of ruining my strop. Is this wrong and could this damage my blade?

If it's causing more pressure on one part of the blade it could well degrade the edge. If you're doing the x stroke you won't hurt the strop. Try practicing with a butter knife if you're worried. And besides, unless you really cut it up you can sand out the nicks.

Thanks! I have a good strop and a just a piece of leather I bought from Whipped Dog. I'll use the leather one when practicing. Love the Dr. Strangelove reference in your signature btw.

Come on! The x-stroke is not that hard. Start with the heel at the side of the strop and end with the toe at the opposite side.

If I am using a strop that is narrower than the length of the cutting edge, I gradually, over the course of a few strokes, move the razor back and forth from heal to toe. This way I can do the same back and forth stropping I am comfortable with while still stropping the whole blade. I don't normally add in any extra strokes because I don't enjoy stropping at all.

Do not fear the X stroke. It is really easy. I think it is a natural movement, meaning you arm naturally moves in a arc which is all the X stroke really is.

I think you can get away with just focusing on ensuring that the entire blade is stropped. So you can strop up and down near the toe, then up and down near the heel. Strops, as a flat piece of leather, are given way too much credit for being able to align striations and replicate bevel scratches. To me, a strop is just a gritless form of honing. One benefit of that is that you can go any direction on the leather and it will always simply produce a flat (non-grit oriented) polish.

I've been sitting down with people all over Virginia the last three months teaching people to strop. Trust me, lots of people have trouble with stropping. The muscle movement is non-intuitive for a lot of people. Just going up and down a strop is something that many people have to learn how to do correctly, and put lots of practice into it.

I think stropping, with the need to produce some speed (just a little) into the process, requires the most muscle memory related training of all the shaving art requirements. Just practice a little, and you'll get great at it in no time.

Muscle memory: oh, oh, now you've got me worried about developing Alzheimers of the muscle.

I know this kind of goes away from the original question, but if you're worried about getting the x stroke down, and feel you need to focus more or stropping ingeneral before beginning the x stroke (which I feel is essential to learn). You can try a 3" strop from SRD or Sharpening Supplies - Sharpen Your Knives and Tools With The Right Supplies they both have strop the size of any normal straight. But like I said, the x stroke is a must know, just ease your way into it and practice.