- Thread starter
- #21
It sure seems that way.
It’s interesting, my honing had to improve before I noticed that my stropping needed improving too.
Stropping more difficult than honing?
- Thread starter Seelector
- Start date
It’s interesting, my honing had to improve before I noticed that my stropping needed improving too.
If you can wrap you head around how thin and fragile the actual cutting edge is, everything you do on a strop can damage that edge easily.
First and most difficult is the flip, you want to flip the razor, so it lands gently on the strop.
Hold the razor from the corners of the tang, (not the Jimps) with the pad of your thumb and forefinger, opposite corners. You flip the razor with your thumb, like you are flipping a switch. This gives you ultimate control on the landing.
If you flip with your wrist, twisting your wrist and hand you will slam the bevel and edge into the strop on landing, not to mention what it does to your form, you are flipping with your whole arm and shoulder. Remember that fragile edge.
Practice the thumb flip off the strop, keep your wrist stationary only your thumb should be moving.
Here is another critical point, Stropping takes all you attention, do not talk to anyone while stropping, if you do, you will cut your stop. If my bride comes into the bathroom or the adjoining bedroom, I stop stropping. Sounds silly, but that is how much attention it takes.
Hold the strop taught, how taught does not matter, I actually have a bit of slack. I hang the strop from a doorknob with 18 inches of paracord, so it is at waist height.
Gently start the downward motion of the razor with the spine on the strop and the edge just off the strop and land the edge after the razor is moving. Get to the end, stop, (critical) start your flip and land the razor after the razor is moving in the opposite direction. The spine never leaves the strop.
Flip with the thumb not your wrist. Stop, flip, move, land.
So, if it takes 1000 perfect motions to perfect/ingrain an action… after each errant motion, you start over. Yea, about a year.
Linen can be soaked in mild soap and scrubbed, takes about a week of soaking and rinsing, a cup of vinegar in 3-4 gallons of water in a 5-gallon bucket, soaking in vinegar will remove all the soap in the weave and loosen the dirt. I soak in soapy water all day, scrub and soak in vinegar all night. Soap in the fabric attracts dirt.
Real flax linen will do wonders for an edge. Clean Flax linen is way, way under rated for stropping performance.
Leather cleaned gently with mild soap and well oiled, oil slowly, a tablespoon once a week or so to rehydrate an old strop, after a good cleaning. Most vintage strops have never been oiled and need hydration. Many new strops have sat on a shelf in a hot warehouse for years and last saw oil when tanned.
Rub a clean white paper towel on the face to see what comes off and if more cleaning is needed. I use Olive oil. Oil slowly it can take month to rehydrate a strop, took years to dry out. No, Olive oil will not go rancid on/in a strop.
Do not wipe your strop with your dirty hand… look at your hands with magnification sometime, even after washing.
I wipe my strops down with a damp microfiber to remove airborne dust before each stropping. Adding water to a leather strop will dry the leather so it will need to be oiled more frequently. Resist the urge to over oil, a tablespoon is plenty, applied with a cotton ball or cotton makeup removing pad. It may take a couple of days or a week to fully absorb. If after a week or two it still appears dry add another tablespoon. Adding oil too much, too quick can rot leather.
A clean white paper towel is a good test to see if your strops need deeper cleaning.
A good test is to strop a razor on a good metal polish on a piece of smooth clean cardboard, about 50- 100 laps will remove all stria. Now strop on your strops and see what kind of finish is left on the bevels from each strop. There should not be any scratches.
You will need to re hone, polish will leave a rough shaving edge.
First and most difficult is the flip, you want to flip the razor, so it lands gently on the strop.
Hold the razor from the corners of the tang, (not the Jimps) with the pad of your thumb and forefinger, opposite corners. You flip the razor with your thumb, like you are flipping a switch. This gives you ultimate control on the landing.
If you flip with your wrist, twisting your wrist and hand you will slam the bevel and edge into the strop on landing, not to mention what it does to your form, you are flipping with your whole arm and shoulder. Remember that fragile edge.
Practice the thumb flip off the strop, keep your wrist stationary only your thumb should be moving.
Here is another critical point, Stropping takes all you attention, do not talk to anyone while stropping, if you do, you will cut your stop. If my bride comes into the bathroom or the adjoining bedroom, I stop stropping. Sounds silly, but that is how much attention it takes.
Hold the strop taught, how taught does not matter, I actually have a bit of slack. I hang the strop from a doorknob with 18 inches of paracord, so it is at waist height.
Gently start the downward motion of the razor with the spine on the strop and the edge just off the strop and land the edge after the razor is moving. Get to the end, stop, (critical) start your flip and land the razor after the razor is moving in the opposite direction. The spine never leaves the strop.
Flip with the thumb not your wrist. Stop, flip, move, land.
So, if it takes 1000 perfect motions to perfect/ingrain an action… after each errant motion, you start over. Yea, about a year.
Linen can be soaked in mild soap and scrubbed, takes about a week of soaking and rinsing, a cup of vinegar in 3-4 gallons of water in a 5-gallon bucket, soaking in vinegar will remove all the soap in the weave and loosen the dirt. I soak in soapy water all day, scrub and soak in vinegar all night. Soap in the fabric attracts dirt.
Real flax linen will do wonders for an edge. Clean Flax linen is way, way under rated for stropping performance.
Leather cleaned gently with mild soap and well oiled, oil slowly, a tablespoon once a week or so to rehydrate an old strop, after a good cleaning. Most vintage strops have never been oiled and need hydration. Many new strops have sat on a shelf in a hot warehouse for years and last saw oil when tanned.
Rub a clean white paper towel on the face to see what comes off and if more cleaning is needed. I use Olive oil. Oil slowly it can take month to rehydrate a strop, took years to dry out. No, Olive oil will not go rancid on/in a strop.
Do not wipe your strop with your dirty hand… look at your hands with magnification sometime, even after washing.
I wipe my strops down with a damp microfiber to remove airborne dust before each stropping. Adding water to a leather strop will dry the leather so it will need to be oiled more frequently. Resist the urge to over oil, a tablespoon is plenty, applied with a cotton ball or cotton makeup removing pad. It may take a couple of days or a week to fully absorb. If after a week or two it still appears dry add another tablespoon. Adding oil too much, too quick can rot leather.
A clean white paper towel is a good test to see if your strops need deeper cleaning.
A good test is to strop a razor on a good metal polish on a piece of smooth clean cardboard, about 50- 100 laps will remove all stria. Now strop on your strops and see what kind of finish is left on the bevels from each strop. There should not be any scratches.
You will need to re hone, polish will leave a rough shaving edge.
I don't believe it is harder at all but it just takes time. The more you do it, the easier it gets. The only hint I have is to stop lightly. Your speed will pick up over time so don't rush it and don't think about it. Counting laps keeps me from thinking about what I'm doing and thinking is what makes you make mistakes.
Sometimes a fixed number of times is not necessarily an ideal edge, but is corrected according to the situation.
rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
I use to count laps but as I was at about 20,000 laps I found that I could tell when the edge was done just by the feel of stropping it.
Very interesting post and replies! I am curious, how sharp are people getting their razors before stropping? I'm curious about how sharp a razor can get straight after honing. Do people even bother checking the sharpness of their razor before stropping? I'm wondering because I actually don't have a strop. So far after honing with jnats I just do maybe 20 laps on my arm and that gets me to passing the hht. Im wondering if buying a proper strop will really improve the shave, after the 2nd pass shaving and onto against the grain I do start to get some irritation..
Where I'm at it is hard to find a good strop for cheap, and I'm addicted to jnats so I'd rather spend the coin on a stone than leather haha
Where I'm at it is hard to find a good strop for cheap, and I'm addicted to jnats so I'd rather spend the coin on a stone than leather haha
Of course! Everyone kind of has their "way" of testing sharpness. At the end of the day it's whatever works for you. If I'm not treetopping arm hair a certain way before hitting the flax/leather I'm not there yet. This is for me and my face.
I've gone a few shaves without stropping and can tell you with absolute confidence that stropping on leather has a positive impact to an edge.
- Thread starter
- #28
I always check mine before stropping. If it’s not treetopping arm hair it’s not done honing.
I am sure the consensus here on b&b will be get a cheap strop first because you will cut it. Definitely worth having tho. I am sure after using one you will know when it is time to get a nice one. Be warned, strops can be a pretty big rabbit hole same as hones. Leather, linen, cotton, veg tan, chrome tan, the list goes on. Go on tony miller's site, there must be 30 different strops on there. Like anything else, pick your price point and dive in. What is the worse that can happen?
rbscebu
Girls call me Makaluod
Where are you and what do you consider a cheap price for a strop?
I'm in Japan, I actually just managed to buy a handful of used strops. A couple in rough condition but maybe one or two are salvageable, so here is hoping. I'll have to do my research about getting strops back into good condition!
I've seen this before, brace yourself for the can of worms just opened
From an objective stand point a palm is skin, skin is essentially leather, properties are similar. So it comes down to confidence and the level of risk you are comfortable with. If the like a 6 inch strop and figure the blade is going from your hand to your face so whats the difference in risk, i guess palm stroping is for you. If you like a longer strop and don't want to risk cutting your hand even tho you are risking cutting your face, i guess get a proper hanging strop.
I think that is a diplomatic response, we will see.
To your answer I have the impression of having asked a question that poses a problem. if so, I apologize, I didn't mean to be blasphemousI've seen this before, brace yourself for the can of worms just opened
haha it's not you. there are a lot of little details that some guys like to go back and forth about.
The ability of a strop to improve a freshly honed edge are well documented.
Hand stropping works and is not as dangerous as it looks, just not a lot of time on the substrate.
A good linen is as important as the leather. Tons of great linen and leather in the wild, it will need to be cleaned well and leather hydrated.
Hand stropping works and is not as dangerous as it looks, just not a lot of time on the substrate.
A good linen is as important as the leather. Tons of great linen and leather in the wild, it will need to be cleaned well and leather hydrated.
Last time I traveled out of town for a couple days I only brought a flax linen stop and stropped on my forearm to mellow out the edge coming off the linen.
One thing a lot of newcomers to the art of straight shaving do is try and strop at speed. As with all things straight shaving related, patience is key. Especially when just starting out.
People might have seen a barber, their grandfather or films with people stropping at speed and assume that is how it is done. Stropping can be done well fast, but it takes a while to get to that proficiency. Start slow and get your technique down first. Speed will come.
People might have seen a barber, their grandfather or films with people stropping at speed and assume that is how it is done. Stropping can be done well fast, but it takes a while to get to that proficiency. Start slow and get your technique down first. Speed will come.
Part of the problem with stropping and learning to strop is, new shavers/honers do not know what, they don’t know or are missing.
If you are not stropping or stropping improperly, you are leaving a lot of keen shaving edge on the table.
It has only been recently that many on the woodworking community have learned the benefit and some adopted stropping for wood working tools, for years the mantra was, stropping will roll an edge. And it will if you strop improperly. Funny furniture makers would not strop, but carvers always have.
Yes, movies and TV have ruined a lot of edges for new stroppers. As with most things, they get it wrong.
If you are not stropping or stropping improperly, you are leaving a lot of keen shaving edge on the table.
It has only been recently that many on the woodworking community have learned the benefit and some adopted stropping for wood working tools, for years the mantra was, stropping will roll an edge. And it will if you strop improperly. Funny furniture makers would not strop, but carvers always have.
Yes, movies and TV have ruined a lot of edges for new stroppers. As with most things, they get it wrong.
