I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but the strop after shaving thread made me go "duh".
Any benefit to stropping in between passes?
Any benefit to stropping in between passes?
Stropping during shaving?
- Thread starter Neurotopia
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0n occasion it's useful, especially if you have thick stubble or you find that you didn't strop enough before the shave
You can never really strop enough after all
You can never really strop enough after all
I've seen one or two folks say they do it. I've also seen members say you can go ~3 shaves without stropping without any problems. I just strop between every shave. It's working out fine for me so far.
- Thread starter
- #4
Hmm, I'll give it a shot and see what happens.
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- #6
I don't have to strop, but I have noticed that my chin stubble had a barbed wire consistency by the time I get to my ATG pass. That part of the shave isn't bad, but it isn't as comfortable as it could be. I don't get any weepers or razor burn but I can "tell" it has been shaved when I'm done, whereas the rest of my face is fine.
That's what happened with one of my razors recently. I figured it wasn't holding an edge and needed to be refreshed, the sort of thing you'd use a barber's hone for. Since I don't have a barber's hone, I gave it a few laps on the finest grit hone I have (Shapton 16K). Next shave it held its edge just fine.
Or you're using too steep an angle, or the razor is too sharp and the edge a bit too weak (which might be called "overhoned" by someone who is resistant to the idea of interpass stropping). Or you're wiping the lather off on a towel - that was the case with me back when I was stropping mid-shave. Once I switched back to rinsing the blade then the razor stopped benefitting from mid-shave stropping.
I have discovered that my beard is tough enough to require me to strop between passes. I have been struggling the past few months while learning to straight shave and I have found that my first pass is always very nice, but my second is not nearly as smooth, and often by the time I hit a third pass I may as well be shaving with a butter knife. A few weeks ago I decided to restrop between my first and second pass and WOW. What a difference it made. I have started to get shaves that are much smoother than I get with my DE's and I think that this is what I will do from now on. Just this morning I used this technique with my Griffon 67 and had the best shave I have ever had period. I understand that this is different than the vast majority of other straight shavers out there, but it works for me.
For the record, my beard is thick and heavy enough that the most I can comfortably get out of a DE blade is 3 shaves, and that is pushing it.
For the record, my beard is thick and heavy enough that the most I can comfortably get out of a DE blade is 3 shaves, and that is pushing it.
Interesting idea. I don't strop in the bathroom, so it never occurred to me to try it. Maybe one of these days I'll give it a try. I tend to have some tugging on the ATG pass, and I would consider my beard very coarse and difficult to cut.
Ive never had to. Just lots of stropping before hand
I thought they ran the gamut from 4K up to 12K, but not more. I went for the 16K on the "least harm" principle. It needed something more than my strop could provide. If that didn't work (and thank Goodness it did, because using a coarser grit was/is frightening to me), I'd try a few passes on my 8K Norton. That seemed like going from refreshing to honing, and I didn't want to take that step then (don't want to now, either, but I suppose I'll have to someday, hence my Norton 220/1K, 4K/8K, Shapton16K...I know I could use a coticule for the whole progression, but it seems that requires a feel for the blade on the hone I just don't have...)
I frequently hit the strop for a few before an ATG pass. Sometimes it seems to help other times not so much. I think it may help if the edge is getting a little tired.
Hi Scissors, I'd be curious to know how long that edge lasts for you after the 16k, until you have to hit it again. Another option is pasted strops, which is what I am using - in my case, I have CrOx.
OK. I'm not 100% sure of the dates, but I think it's held for a month now. If you haven't heard from me in a while on this, nudge me in a PM; at my age, you tend to forget.
Heh.. no worries! I was wondering more in terms of number of shaves. Do you use the same blade every day, or rotate through a collection? A month of daily shaves is pretty good.
