Time to learn

hello everyone my strop is here and I am ready to learn to use it. Hope to get this all down so I can start a straight focus. Any tips would be great. I bought an Illinois 827

 

Light strokes, slow, with the blade always on the leather. Let there be an inch of so slack(drop), or bow, in the strop. Slow slow slow.
Plenty of videos.

 

I will be looking tomorrow what’s the canvas for before the leather?

 

Do 35 strokes on the Canvas, first, then 35 on the leather, every shave.
My ritual is to do 35/35, after each shave. I then oil the blade, and put it up, not in an airtight box. In case there is residual water in the scales.
Then, before I use a blade, i wipe the oil off, and give the blade 10-20 strokes, on the leather.

some do up to 80, on the leather, every time. I find my blades do well enough with only 35/35.

 

Let me give a little hint

Set the strop along the edge of a counter or table for the first week or two, learn the Mechanics of the "Flip" 1-1000 up 2-1000 back,,,, that slow and steady,, concentrate on perfect smooth strokes keeping the spine of the razor buried in the leather...

almost all beginner mistake come from

#1 The flip being done with too much wrist and not enough fingers
#2 SPEED

This is a "Tips" vid I did back in 2012 it isn't really about "Stropping" per se just some tips to help




This is Alan aka AFdavis11 who might be one of the smoothest stropmeister you ever want to see when I met Alan at the NC meet in 2008 and 2009 we sent all the beginners over to him to watch and learn
Pay attention to how smooth his Flip is



Strop on !!!

 

Groovy!

 

So fun when someone starts open blade shaving. Finding the correct pressure against the skin probably was hardest for me.

 

Stropping well is critical. Take your time. I learned from the guys hanging out on this forum.

 

I will be giving it another go today. And will let y’all know how it goes!

 

Been stropping since September 2018, no long. Took me a week to get the muscle memory for flipping blade.

I've stopped counting. I pull the strop tight and strop with little or no pressure. I can go fast, but prefer to make every stroke count.

I'm experimenting with shaving off a Thuringian instead of pastes, diamond or chromium oxide. Stop follows stone using horse hide only. I strop linen and leather after use.

 

I just want to point out you headed me In this direction when you challenged me with that wonderful shavette last year lol!

 

I

believe I’m getting better at it even the flipping it is definitely something I’m taking my time on

 

Don’t worry about doing it fast as you develop the muscle memory and it will get quicker. But Speed is not needed so don’t focus on the speed just on the pressure.

 

Agreed.

 

been hammered into my brain as an apprentice mechanic and throughout my life. speed comes with repetition and quality not quantity...

 

As with DE, less pressure is your friend. So is time and repetition.

 

Using the strop as a bench strop is super useful. It'll help keep from rolling the edge early on anyhow.

 

Just a quick note to say congrats on taking the first steps. This is on my "to learn" list, but so far, I have stuck to DE razors. Well done, and thanks for the inspiration on giving this a try.

Happy shaves