Three simple tips for edge care

[Eastcoast30]

I received three very simple tips for edge care. I know we cannot plug vendors here on the forum. So I will just say that these tips come from a highly respected honemeister. Also, they are not super technical and don't require various maneuvers or special attention. I have been following these tips and they work. Once I have honed my razor, I get great HHT results with this simple procedure:

1. Palm strop. Your skin is much softer and less harmful to the edge than leather. Go with palm stropping for as long as you can before moving on to leather. I believe Alfredo has a video on palm stropping. I have also seen him strop on his forearm. Palm stropping works very well for me.

2. Go to the leather when palm stropping doesn't work anymore. Smooth cordovan is safer than some of the rougher hides. Stropping on leather should be slow and with very light pressure.

3. Maintain a shaving angle of 20 degrees or less. Shaving at greater angles absolutely destroys an edge. Keep the spine as close to the face as you can.

These are the three simple tips that I pass along. Feedback is always appreciated.

 

[silverlifter]

Palm stropping? Yikes! Given the way newbies like me slash up strops, this should be tagged as advanced advice...

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I strop on my arm quite often when honing. It really does work. And the low shave angle thing was a game changer once I actually did it consistently. Both for post shave comfort AND edge retention.

 

[Eastcoast30]

@silverlifter - palm stropping is safe and easy. Once you learn it, you will never slash up your strops. My cordovan strop just keeps getting better with age, and slow very light stropping. I try to strop using only the weight of the razor for pressure.

Worst case: How far away is the emergency room?

 

[silverlifter]

Worst case: How far away is the emergency room?

I live rurally, so far enough for me to be nervous...

 

[sanookd]

@silverlifter……. There are some shave videos out there by some very skilled Italian barbers and their palm stropping skills are quite impressive!

 

[Eastcoast30]

I have seen some of those videos. I don't have such skill. I just go slow and light.

Added bonus for those that travel often: Your palm and forearm make for a great "travel strop"!

 

[sanookd]

I have seen some of those videos. I don't have such skill. I just go slow and light.

Added bonus for those that ravel often: Your palm and forearm make for a great "travel strop"!

I don’t possess that palm stropping skill either but I do find it entertaining and impressive to watch!

 

[Titleist]

I received three very simple tips for edge care. I know we cannot plug vendors here on the forum. So I will just say that these tips come from a highly respected honemeister. Also, they are not super technical and don't require various maneuvers or special attention. I have been following these tips and they work. Once I have honed my razor, I get great HHT results with this simple procedure:

1. Palm strop. Your skin is much softer and less harmful to the edge than leather. Go with palm stropping for as long as you can before moving on to leather. I believe Alfredo has a video on palm stropping. I have also seen him strop on his forearm. Palm stropping works very well for me.

2. Go to the leather when palm stropping doesn't work anymore. Smooth cordovan is safer than some of the rougher hides. Stropping on leather should be slow and with very light pressure.

3. Maintain a shaving angle of 20 degrees or less. Shaving at greater angles absolutely destroys an edge. Keep the spine as close to the face as you can.

These are the three simple tips that I pass along. Feedback is always appreciated.

#3 above is the best advice for anyone just starting out. Thank you for sharing these with us.

 

[2bit_collie]

I have seen some of those videos. I don't have such skill. I just go slow and light.

Added bonus for those that travel often: Your palm and forearm make for a great "travel strop"!

Rats! After I spent all that money on a travel strop!
Seriously will have to give it a try. I try to strop as light as i can with what pressure there is on the spine rather than the edge. I will say that forearm stropping sounds a lot easier than palm stropping just based on the shape.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I think the edge of the palm (on the pinky side) works really well, but I have callouses. So I use my forearm. It teaches you a lot about stropping pressure.

 

[Eastcoast30]

This is from youtube. Here, Alfredo is sharpening my Le Grelot on a stone I sent along for testing. At the end of the video, Alfredo does a bit of "fancy stropping". For you newbies that want to try this at home, remember that Alfredo is a doctor. BTW, that Le Grelot is the sharpest smoothest razor in my collection. (Skip to the end if you only want to see the stropping.)

 

[RayClem]

Human skin IS a type of leather. It just has not been tanned unless you use the skin from a mummy.

If you cannot safely strop your straight razor on your palm with an edge trailing stroke, I would be skeptical of your ability to use that razorn to shave your face with an edge leading stroke. Palm stropping teaches you to FOCUS your attention on the task at hand. That focus is essential when honing, stropping on linen or leather or when shaving. Thus, it is good training.

 

[Eastcoast30]

^ +1

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Palm stropping will make you Pay Attention, and maybe, that is why it works.

Really it is not that dangerous, as long as the blade is in forward motion. You can strop from the base of the palm to the little finger pad, or just the fleshy part of the palm.

Literally Skin in the Game.

 

[Gamma]

I don't palm strop, not enough surface area to get what I am looking for out of the equation.
Having stropped, a lot, on a ridiculous array of materials, including skin, and having put all of those edges under intense magnification - I can say that leather strops have only proven to have a positive impact, not a negative one. Addendum - softer materials, including skin, did not prove to offer an improvement.. and some softer materials have so much of a 'lesser effect' than a thick stiff hide with a soft top-surface that they either take forever to get there, or they just don't get there. I can strop on my boot if I need to, just don't need to and a 20" long strip of leather has, objectively, proven to be the best way for me to keep an edge going. there is a sweet spot where a certain 'distance traveled' on the strop yields the expected/desired results and less distance = less edge, and more distance doesn't make any real difference. Trying to get there on my leg or palm is just too tedious and I am convinced I get better results on my strop anyway. But that's me.
Long ago, there was a guy who insisted stropping was for fools, or people that can't hone - so there's that.

Have not been able to prove that steeper angles diminish edge life, not in a 'blanket' sense anyway. Someone on another forum insisted that angles under 30˚ killed edges and produced poor shaves and I have not proven that to be true either. Steeper angles can actually improve cutting efficacy in some blades. Edge life doesn't really seem to be affected consistently against a shaving angle variable. Anecdotal evidence points to these things sometimes, but then continued review shows otherwise. Maybe in some cases it does, but maybe in other cases it does not. I have, often, shaved with 30-ish degree angles without damaging effects though.

I don't shave with a protractor hanging around but I do, usually, use a shallow angle, almost flat sometimes. That practice developed over time. But, I go for the 'feel of the cut', not so much a specific angle. there are places on my face where I raise the spine. The edge tells me how it cuts best, all I have to do is pay attention. Some stout-bevel edges will do better at steeper angles. What those angles are might just be a personal-preference thing though. For my shaves, the best balance of performance, shave quality, edge life and so on - that comes from letting the edge tell me how it wants to cut. It's like a butcher cutting veal into cutlets, it gets done mostly by feel, not looking. At least that's how I learned.

At the end of the day though, everyone should try everything, and then just do what works best for them.

 

[Eastcoast30]

@Gamma, well these are just tips that I pass along. But I do know that the honed edge of a razor can be likened to a foil. And the greater the angle, the greater the edge deflection (roll). Having said that, when outlining the bottom of my beard I do need to hold a larger angle. But I always try to keep the smallest angle possible. And as you say, there are spots that will need a larger angle.

P.S. I enjoy your videos; they are very helpful.

 

[Frank Shaves]

If you have an old beater, kill the edge and use it to learn to palm strop.

 

[Possum092]

Palm stropping…I’ve heard it all now. Next I suggest using your dogs ears as a strop because the natural oils on the hairs and loose skin caresses the blade to gently restore the edge. Joking don’t try stropping with your dog’s ears or your flesh…thought I was reading Reddit posts for a minute.

 

[Titleist]

I palm strop directly after the shave to remove any hair, soap, etc from the edge. I do that as a quick step before moving to the cloth strop so that I don't transfer that junk to my linen and leather. I don't think that anyone here is suggesting that palm stropping is going to take the place of a leather strop or would even refine an edge.

Plenty of professional barbers over the years have survived with just a leather strop and their palms. It's sort of comical to me to imagine the three barbers that we used to visit decades ago with my Dad. Seeing them as they sat around talking about personal "honing preferences". They didn't hone like we claim to these days. If they had a barber's hone that was it. Or, they sent their straights out or someone visited the shop to sharpen and hone.

I can remember zero times having heard any of the Men who received a straight razor shave come out of that shop complaining honestly. The times that we visited, all I saw was the strop and palm routine when the shave started. And to be honest, I can't remember ever thinking that the barber was taking too long on the strop. He may have made 15 strokes tops and then on to the shave.