I've been shaving with straights for a while now and I'm confident in my technique and the honing I've had done on my razors (honers from here). However, I have a nagging suspicion that my razors aren't as sharp as they could be and I wonder if it's my stropping. Do any of you have any suggestions, tips, or tricks that aren't in the normal process of stropping. I keep the strop very taut and usually do 20 laps on the canvas and 60 laps on the leather. I roll the razor over on it's spine and I apply hardly any pressure.
Stropping ?s
- Thread starter Nizzyrate
- Start date
The typical go slow and putting the strop on a flat surface till you get good at it. However from what you posted it sounds like you are doing it right. You could increase the the laps on the cotton, and adding Dovo white paste really helps. Also some feel that warming the leather in your hands helps the stropping process. Your woes could also be chalked up to shaving technique. My blades didn't last nearly as long as they do now.
Over time your blades will lose their edge. I follow your 20/60 regime on the strop but every 3 weeks or so refresh my blades over a Naniwa 10K stone followed by passes over strops loaded with the TI Diamond Pastes (1 micron and 0.25 micron followed by Chromox).
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+1 It could also be your prep, try lathering up before stropping. After you are done stropping put on a hot towel to your lathered face for 30 seconds then rinse off the lather and relather properly before shaving. It does wonders to soften up whiskers and thus reduces drag and tug.
That sounds right...
Having the straight for "a while" might mean that you need to refresh the edge on a stone...
Having the straight for "a while" might mean that you need to refresh the edge on a stone...
This is where a barber hone comes in handy, after a few weeks of use, I run my razor over a barbers hone, and it brings the razor edge back to sharpness, then stropping does the trick again for a few weeks.
How long can you do that before you need to hone it properly?
If you're happy with the barber hone, I don't think you would need a "proper" honing...
Good question that, as i have been using a few razors over the past few months, i have not done it long enough to 1 razor to answer your question, hopefully someone with more experiance with a barbers hone can chip in with a answer for you, when i feel stropping is not getting the razor where it should be, i throw in the barbers hone and then strop and the razor is fine again, twice i have done this to my kropp, but thats the most, as the other razors have been run over only once with barbers hone, and they still work fine, so far........
Speaking to newbies that might be reading this thread, as it doesn't sound like your problem...
Put your hanging strop on the edge of a table, which in essence turns it into a paddle strop. That eliminates all worry about rolling your blade from strop sagging.
Put your hanging strop on the edge of a table, which in essence turns it into a paddle strop. That eliminates all worry about rolling your blade from strop sagging.
Got a lot of good replies Nizzy...all I'll say is post how your next shaves go and keep asking questions!
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