Took about a year for me to exploit maybe 95% of what the strop was capable of.
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Took about a year for me to exploit maybe 95% of what the strop was capable of.
The hardest part for me was rolling the razor. You're, in essence, rolling a surface that's rectangular in shape. I'm still not near to where I'd like to be. But, who is?
Six months to competency and more than three years in, I still slow down every now and again and eke out more performance. It was the single most difficult part of the process for me to get my head (and muscle memory) around.
It's hard to say, because there really wasn't a moment that I suddenly realized I was proficient. It was a gradual process where eventually I thought about what I was doing less and less. Now that I've been at it a couple years, other than counting laps, I don't even think while stropping, at least not about the stropping. Some days I don't even count.
You will know yourself when you get into the zone and your stropping becomes one complete fluid movement throughout the cycle. Then it just feels right, sounds right and ultimately shaves sweetly
I also am beginning to develop problems with my hands that I fear are the beginnings of arthritis. That has started to put a limit to the number of reps I can do at a given time. As mentioned above, it makes rolling the razor real interesting.