Thread: Over stropping?

I'm new to the straight razor world, and I'm still trying to figure out many of the finer points to this whole process. One of the things that seems to be up for debate is when and how much to strop. I've been following what most people seem to suggest, which is stropping every time you shave (I tend to do this after I shave so that my blade is ready to use the next day). This seems to be working alright, but I don't really have much to compare against. I came across an article on Knives at Knife Center today which seemed to go completely against what I've read everywhere else. The consensus seems to be, more stropping = sharper blade, but his article seems to contradict that. Any thoughts on the article below?

"When you shave, the cutting edge gets somewhat misaligned microscopically. It looks like microserrations, bending aside irregularly. If you put the knife away, the cutting edge stretches ('grows') spontaneously within 24 hours. After 3 or 4 shaves it should be aligned a little bit again and therefore you must strop. If you do that correctly, and treat the blade well, you only need to hone once every month or even year, and never send it in fro grinding. You need the right strop and the right paste. The game is, to postpone honing as long as possible, and to use the strop almost exclusively. Any other reports are due to wrong care."

Not sure what the other guys will have to say, but basically listen to SRP, not that article. Stropping doesn't sharpen anything, it realigns the edge (as said) but it also cleans your blade from microscopic shaving crude which can cause rust. The whole teeth thing isn't really borne out by the microscopes either.

you should strop your razor before you shave and at least 10 or 20 laps after to clean the edge up if nothing else.

EDIT!!!: i think i did what you did and didnt read the article properly.. are you mistaking honing for stropping? in that sense the article is what a lot of guys believe.

Ok, here's my thoughts.

If you're stropping properly, you should be able to maintain an edges for quite some time. Stropping really is king, it will prolong the sharpness of the blade. It realigns the teeth of a razor in the same way that a steel realigns the teeth of a knife. The steel is not a sharpener, nor is the strop. With use, both the knife and the razor will need to be honed to some extent. This is where the article makes mention of the honing or pastes. Both are abrasive and thus, sharpeners, the difference being that the use of a paste requires a spine leading stroke while a hone is *usually* and edge leading stroke.

Stropping after you shave does help to dry the cutting edge and remove "micro-gunk" (that's the scientific term ). IME, as long as the razors remain in an environment that is low humidity, there is no reason not to strop them completely and put them away. This is exactly what I do with my own razors. They are all ready to go.

Each person has a strop "set", and mine is 35 linen followed by 60 leather. Any less than this and my face can feel it, while any more than this becomes negligent in improvement. You will most likely find your own "set" after a while. The risk with stropping plenty as I see it, is that with an increase in a number of passes, you also increase the risk of rolling the edge....especially when you're learning to strop.

That's my two cents.

My view is 60 passes is the best. After that you're just exercising your arm. The only thing to watch with excessive stropping is arm fatigue might lead to bad stropping and then you can get into trouble.

That quote you show mentions "..the right strop and the right paste...". I'm guessing, but the most likely interpretation of that would be abrasive paste rather than leather conditioning paste. In that light, yes you could potentially overstrop, just like you can potentially overhone - whenever you are talking about abrasive media the potential is always there to overdo it. It simply is a matter of how long it might take for that to happen, which is a function of many things, some of the more important being the size, shape, and makeup of the abrasive particulates. So it is entirely possible with pasted abrasive strops to overhone very quickly (eg: the carborundum strop I once bought ate a stainless steel breadknife in about 30 strokes!). But equally it would be quite difficult I think to overhone on a strop pasted with CrOx.

However, IMO it is basically impossible to overstrop on plain leather (in finite time).

There have been a few small-scale stropping experiments done over the years which generally show that, while the claim that the "cutting edge stretches ('grows') spontaneously..." may be true, stropping is still necessary to achieve a nice shave.

James.

I do 30/70 just before each shave, none after, however after reading this I might add 10/10 after too, to dry the edge and remove 'gunk'. I do agree with the comments on increased number of strops leading to increased possibility of sloppy stropping (or words I think to that effect). I find I need to force the mind to concentrate on JUST the stropping. I find this true also of shaving, and I actually like the process of forcing the mind to think about one action or process; it's very meditative in a 'verb' kind of way...

Maybe there is something to resting razors. If I want to shave with an 8/8 and only have a 6/8, can I just rest it and not strop it and wait for the blade to "grow" to the width I want? Should I start stropping when it gets to 8/8 so it doesn't transform itself into a monster chopper?

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

I do 30/70 just before each shave, none after, however after reading this I might add 10/10 after too, to dry the edge and remove 'gunk'. I do agree with the comments on increased number of strops leading to increased possibility of sloppy stropping (or words I think to that effect). I find I need to force the mind to concentrate on JUST the stropping. I find this true also of shaving, and I actually like the process of forcing the mind to think about one action or process; it's very meditative in a 'verb' kind of way...

I always liked to do 5-10 laps on the linen then the leather after a shave. I still wipe the razor dry, but it's hard to get the very bevel dry as well, so that's why I always like to strop it after to clean the actual edge.

Edit: With regards to the original topic, I really don't think it's possible to overstrop. I think there's a point where stropping more isn't really helping, but it's not going to hurt the edge either, granted you're stropping properly and not lifting the spine or something. Everyone is different, but somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25/50 laps should be enough. There's no problem doing a few more or less, but once the edge is properly stropped you're just wasting your time doing more. Unless you just like to strop.