Thread: first strop

Hey Gents,
First shave with straight edge was an awesome experience!!!
Now for the question... Do i, when stropping the blade for the first time, strop with the linen and then the leather side without any paste, or do I have to paste the back of the linen side and work up to the clean linen and then the leather, what element should I use or experiment with?

Thanks you in advance for your imputs,

alexramirez22

Welcome to SRP and congratulations on your first shave.

After your shave wipe your razor dry then strop for 10 round trips on clean webbing/linen. During your next shave while the later is setting up strop for 10 - 20 on clean linen then 50 - 75 on clean leather.

A pasted strop is only needed if the edge needs a touch up. That first touch up is usually about 14 to 30 shaves in for someone just starting out. The first re-hone is at about 60 to 90 shaves. It is a good idea to keep the pastes away from you everyday strop, most pastes will migrate through webbing/linen. I don't use pastes but if I did I would keep them on a second strop to avoid grit contamination on my every day strop.

If you want to try out different pastes before committing to using it on a good strop try it on newspaper or balsa. Once you decide on a paste most put it on webbing, linen, or felt however; leather can work well also.

Jonathan

Jonathan,
Thanks so much for your reply; I didn't think I can go so many shaves without pasting or honing...goodness, talk about savings!!!
Anyway, I will strop with the linen the recommended amount of times and test to see where I am with my skill set; I'm practicing on my linen and leather strop with a $10 blade I bought at the flea market; I figured I should practice to get the strokes down packed so as not to round the edge of my recently acquired, Thiers Issard

Thanks Again!

Alex

Yea like he said.

paste is only when you need a touch up. You never know how many shaves you will get before needing a touch up. Some guys say they can shave a year or more without any attention at all. if you do need a touch up catch it early so all it takes is a few strokes on a finishing hone rather than wait until it deteriorates to a point where you need a real hone job.

Thanks chief,
Ive heard of using newspaper...seems to work on a lot of stuff...
Also, I'll keep on eye on the razor- tug before i paste...great reply, thanks!!!

alexramirez22

Hi Alex, and welcome! It's great that you're practicing with a junker blade. Your TI will probably require more stropping passes than our usual counts, because TIs are made of harder steel than most blades.

Best wishes and happy shaving.

jonathan,

Just to recap...just the weight of the blade when stropping, correct?
Also, the strop i bought came with a wool/felt strop along with the leather...any recommendation on the wool stuff? I've heard that its "better" than linen, if thats the case, what abrasive elements can i use on it to maintain the edge?

Regards,

alexramirez22

Alex,
Yes, just the weight of the blade. Go slow and keep the strop taught. Concentrate on keeping the blade flat on the strop. If you lift the spine, you will roll the edge of the razor and it will need to be honed. You can use the wool/felt as you would the linen. I actually prefer the wool/felt. IMHO, a good quality Chromium Oxide would be the best to start out with paste. I would be carefulw where I purchased the pastes since they are not all created equal. I find the best way to apply the CroX is with the use of the Crox Crayon. I think SRD has it available and it makes it very easy to apply.

What Mvcrash said is perfect. I would add that felt is better for the hard / less frangible abrasives ie diamond and CBN. Crox crayon is the product of choice for most, it is also cheap comparatively.

For lots more on stroping check out the Stroptober thread.

Jonathan

Mvcrash,Thanks for your input...i take everything said and run with it. All of your experiences (everybody in the forum) is my opportunity to grasp knowledge and grow...will look into the pastes, experiment, and get that fine edge.

alexramirez22