Stropping by "feel"

[Kyle89]

Hey gents!

So I'm perfectly happy with my stropping routine (I count, like Dracula). I have seen posts here and there about guys who don't count and just go by feel. I've been taking mental notes during my stropping to see if I can feel any discernable difference throughout the stropping process and my only conclusion is that it just feels like I'm stropping.

For now I guess I'll continue counting. Hey, it keeps the brain sharp. As I age maybe it will take longer for me to forget how to count to 40...

To those guys that strop by feel, what are you feeling for?

 

[Frinstance]

I go about 10 laps past the change in sound. My thinking is that the leather has brought the apex back in line and a few more laps just in case should be fine. As for feel, I would compare it to the difference between dragging the top or face of a finger nail across a blackboard, and the edge of a nail doing the same. There's a scrapey feel to an out-of-line edge, as opposed to the smooth feel of polished spine on leather being the only sensation coming up through the hand.

Funny, I tend to get sloppy if I'm really anal about the lap count.

 

[RumpleBearskin]

I count, but that's more my OCD than anything to do with the razor. I may be "done" at 23 laps, but I still go to thirty.

I my case "done" is judged by a change in both sound and feel of the edge on the leather. The sound changes to more of a "ringing" sound than the initial "sliding" or "scraping" sound. Similarly, the feel becomes abruptly smoother or a "lighter/faster" draw. It's not something I try to "do", and I don't "wait for it". It just suddenly happens.

 

[Ravenonrock]

I’m just counting, even then I’m throwing darts. More than 20, less than 50. Change up.

 

[Kyle89]

Thanks for the responses guys (and got a nice chuckle from the deleted post lol).

I usually do 10-15 laps on leather post-shave but after this morning I paid close attention to how things felt, and it did seem to smooth out after lap 18 which I found really interesting. I've been "feeling" for changes during my pre-shave stropping but I guess some of the groundwork was already done from post-shave stropping which explains why I wasn't feeling much of a change.

I was surprised I did feel something at such a low lap count.

 

[Wid]

My spider senses tell me when I’m done

I’m a counter too. I’ve tried to feel a change but I don’t.

 

[steveclarkus]

I count.

 

[Seelector]

I count my laps. Never felt any change, but sometimes I think I can hear the sound change. It goes from a sort of scraping sound to something smoother and slicker. Even so, I count my laps. Usually 20ish on linen and 30-40 on leather.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

I count on the strop. But not on the stone. I can't say I hear a change or feel one. Maybe I just haven't been listening hard enough. Who am I kidding? I can't hear much of anything anymore. LOL. 20 to 60 laps depending on how I feel.

 

[silverlifter]

I count, but I will frequently go over the amount I have in my head if I feel that I am in the groove.

So, I might decide after a shave to strop 30 laps on linen, but by lap 30 it is going really well so I add another 10 just because. Same on leather beforehand. Too much time on my hands, obviously...

 

[Pack line]

Never been a counter. Usually go by sound and feel. But also treat it like mixing epoxy, mix until you are positive you are done, then mix some more.

 

[Kyle89]

Paid close attention to my post-shave stropping again this morning and I "think" I felt things smooth out a little bit after about 35 laps or so, but unsure if I'm just telling myself that.

I like this exercise now because it makes me really pay closer attention to my stropping- a practice I admittedly become a bit mindless to sometimes.

 

[Gamma]

Feedback. I am looking to feel feedback. With continued stropping, the feeling of the blade on the leather changes as the effect the leather has on the steel increases. At some point it sorta peaks out - that's when I'm done.
How someone senses that feeling is a personal thing and two people can call the same thing out with different terms.
Feedback can be tactile as well as audible. Feedback is not all that consistent between different strops and razors.

How well these sensations are picked up depends on the person, their senses, and so on. Some people will be more tuned into it, others not so much, some work at becoming more in-tune to it, some do not.
Someone might not hear so well but 'feel' better, or vice versa. Some say they don't sense anything at all - they just strop mechanically on autopilot.
Whatever works is what works and lots of things work.
There is more than one path to the top of the mountain.

 

[Loner16]

I assume I'm a dolt, but I can't feel a change, and the razor doesn't tell me when it's finished... or, perhaps I'm not listening hard enough.
I'm a counter... but I stop when I feel like it. I cannot over strop, so I don't worry about it...

 

[PintoPlain]

I'm not a counter. Sometimes I do 10 laps, other times 40 or more. Depends on the razor. I go mostly by sound and feel and when it sounds and feels done, it's done. Took me a while to determine when that was with different razors though.

I would imagine different strops provide different feedback, but I've been using my homemade 'roo strop for years and it's the only strop I use.

 

[Loner16]

After a fair number of years of using a straight razor exclusively, I still don't know when a blade is fully stropped... if it ever is.
Having torn down machinery that ran leather belting, those sheaves just get shinier and shinier the longer they're run. The don't get to one degree of shine and suddenly stop.
So, I assume a strop would just keep burnishing the edge ad infinitum...

 

[Frank Shaves]

I am intrigued by your question. I can definitely feel the difference between an edge making good contact with a stone and undercutting the liquid versus not.

I am going to pay more attention to this when stropping.

 

[2bit_collie]

I count. Not sure that I feel a difference, but I haven’t really focused on it. Maybe something to think about in the future. I do listen to the sound carefully, but more from the perspective of wanting a particular sound to tell me that I am stropping with the right pressure/contact rather than that the edge is changing.

 

[steveclarkus]

I count, but I will frequently go over the amount I have in my head if I feel that I am in the groove.

So, I might decide after a shave to strop 30 laps on linen, but by lap 30 it is going really well so I add another 10 just because. Same on leather beforehand. Too much time on my hands, obviously...

I get into the groove as well sometimes doing thirty sometimes 50 even though that iw completely unnecessary. One lap per second so what difference does enjoying the strop for another 20 seconds.
After all. we paid dearly for those things.

 

[Bayamontate]

Excellent observations! I strop by both feel and pitch, the pitch gets lower as the edge get smoother. That’s my experience anyway, the only time this hasn’t worked for me is on those Illinois Russian leather strops, the 827 I believe, that’s one rough strop.