Rolls-stropping your DE blades 101....

btw, I can just see me keeping a little foam peanut on the shave shelf and admonishing the wife not to touch it.

Yeah, that should go over well.

 

He decided that was just a one off blade and sold the rest of them. Just to point that out,.

Fuzzy

 

The ones I sent you are the russian made Platinums. Swedes are about 1000 times better!! The real Swedes can be seen here.......

http://westcoastshaving.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=10

Yup.........

 

FYI - Dave is getting rid of those Gillettes because the one super-extended use blade was a fluke. He's since gotten horrible shaves from them. YMMV.

 

I don't doubt the technique for stropping that rolls uses but I simply strop my DE and SE blades on the side of my hand. And I do it after I shave.

I have found that by stropping it makes my blades last twice as long before they need to be discarded and replaced.

 

Thanks! Can I strop it IN the razor? I.e. run it down my arm with the blade edge trailing? That would be easier than taking it out of the razor each time.

I'll be using a new blade tomorrow. I give all this a try. I'll try stropping in the razor and report back.

 

I have tried it, and it does not work. Removing the blade and stropping ALL the edges is the only effective way of doing it. Believe me, I have tried it all!!


**edit**

I added a couple thing to my initial post under the Tips on the bottom.........

 

Yeah, I had a pretty good shave this AM, but not noticeably better than usual. I corked both edges and stropped one edge in the razor (I use only one edge on a given day). Tomorrow I'll try stropping the other edge out of the razor.

I'm trying this with 7 O'clock Yellows, Tabac soap and my Progress set to 3.5. So far this is the best shave I've come up with. Even if this doesn't improve the shave, I'm still doing VERY well!

 

Dad has his own stropping thread!! That is funny. I will admit that it does work well. He taught me about dressing up DE blades a long time ago. I thought it was just a common practice.

 

Today was the first time I've ever "corked" a blade. I used a packing peanut. Corked then rollstropped. It was a 7 O'Clock black and I used it in an Old Type (first time with that razor, too.)

Fantastic shave.

 

are there any good videos on this?

 

I just bought a Rolls and this is very helpful. Thanks!

 

Second attempt: This time I stropped it as Rolls described, on the arm, out of the razor, pinching it between thumb and forefinger. The shave was great! After the 3rd pass, it felt as "done" as after my usual 4 passes. I went ahead and did a 4th anyway. That may have been a mistake. If not, then the capsacin cream afterwards was!

I used the tiniest amount, thinking the analegic effect would be good for the slight redness. It tuns out I was right. I was REALLY good for the redness...as in, it made it redder! I had to wash it off after about half an hour and my face looked sunburned for the rest of the day.

If not for the capsacin, it might have been a perfect shave. Or that last pass might have left my face red too, but not as bad.

I usually shave in the mornings. On Sunday, I tend to shave in the late afternoon/early evening so I can skip a shave on Monday AM. Stress reduction and all... So this time I'll strop on my arm with the Ingersoll and pay attention and not over shave. And I think I'll skip the capsacin this time...and forever more.

 

Third attempt: Ingersoll handle on my arm. Corked then stropped both sides of both edges. That's easy with the Ingersoll. Great shave at about 10 pm last night. At 3:30 pm today, just begining to feel some stubble. Very little reddness, may be residual from the capsacin incident.

The Ingersoll *does* take a little coordination, as I learned. :ashamed001 I have a light slice on my wrist because I didn't time the change of edge with the change of direction just right. Very light cut. In fact it's almost totally gone, less than 24 hrs later. That's almost unheard of for me.

Next I'll try the Ingersoll on a leather strop. There may be something to this!

 

The descriptions posted here are very good but some pictures of the process could be helpful to ensure we are understanding the technique correctly.

 

Okay................. You realize that this whole tutorial was focused on DE blades, right? As for the wedge blade that the Rolls Razors have, I always honed mine on a better quality stone than the one in the box. Also, it is good to use a real strop here and there, even some paste too.

Maybe one of the guys could do this. These nurses might get a bit out of sorts if they come in here and I am running a razor blade up and down my arm............ !!

 

I gotcha--It came in the mail today and I realized how much like a large straight razor blade it is. Very neat device though! I'll probably try the stone that came with it but I have another hone so we'll see.

 

Be careful when using the stone it comes with. Do not move the handle back and forth too fast, it can lead to you accidentaly cracking the stone itself. Go ahead and just hone it with a better stone. I used to hone mine once a month, if that. So long as you keep it dressed up in between shaves, that Sheffield steel will stay sharp.

 

I'll do just that and thanks!

 

This is a true thread reflecting the economic crisis that we even consider stropping a DE blade ! I love it !