In this thread a couple guys mentioned that stropping is more difficult than honing. I'm fairly new at both, so maybe I'm missing something, but honing is a lot trickier for me. I always seem to have trouble getting a proper bevel set all the way to the heel. BUT... it's not like I ink my bevel before stropping so who knows if I'm hitting it everywhere. And I’ve noticed that my edge can be degraded by stropping after 1um film. Straight off 1um film it’s treetopping nicely, but then I’ll strop on linen then leather and find that it’s not treetopping as well as before.
All this makes me think that my stropping technique could be improved.
Typically I’ll do around 25 laps on linen and 25-50 laps on leather after each shave. Then before a shave I’ll another 25-50 laps on leather only, no linen. If I’m honing I’ll do 25-50 laps when I’m done on 1um film. Sometimes I’ll shave off that edge and sometimes I’ll go through a pasted balsa progression.
Are there some stropping techniques that I’m missing? And am I using the linen properly? I basically use it to clean/dry the edge after shaving, but I’ve also read that it can polish as well. I’m using a Tony Miller linen & horsehide strop.
All this makes me think that my stropping technique could be improved.
Typically I’ll do around 25 laps on linen and 25-50 laps on leather after each shave. Then before a shave I’ll another 25-50 laps on leather only, no linen. If I’m honing I’ll do 25-50 laps when I’m done on 1um film. Sometimes I’ll shave off that edge and sometimes I’ll go through a pasted balsa progression.
Are there some stropping techniques that I’m missing? And am I using the linen properly? I basically use it to clean/dry the edge after shaving, but I’ve also read that it can polish as well. I’m using a Tony Miller linen & horsehide strop.