Proper pressure on razor while stropping

Ok, I know from reading comments here that I'm only supposed to put the lightest pressure on the blade while stropping -- "only the weight of the razor itself" is what I hear all the time.

Problem is that I'm finding that without at least a little pressure on the blade, the razor is either flipping and bumping along the strop OR, when I look closely, the edge is not in contact with the strop at all and I'm only actually "stropping" the spine!!

So what am I missing here? When I put enough pressure on the razor to bend the strop ever so slightly, I find that I'm getting good contact between the edge and the strop, but I'm worried that I'm doing it wrong and dulling my blade. Can you give me some ideas of how you judge the correct amount of pressure?

Thanks!!

Practice with butter knife or similar. There is no magic. Its the minimum pressure to keep the thing in contact with the strop. You just need to acquire the skill and there is no secret formula to do it. You learn by doing.

Jeff - I feel your pain. I read every article and watched every video about stropping - to the point that I was completely paranoid about stropping because I was sure I was going to roll the edge or slash the strop. Of course, this led me to poor stropping. Relax! It's only stropping

This video helped me the most. The slo-mo really helped me gauge the amount of pressure to use. In my opinion, you should have enough pressure to create the draw sensation. Also, I keep the strop more taught than Liam does in the video.

The only way I could get a grasp on the concept and figure out how much pressure was enough was the following:

The blade should be in contact with the leather. The more contact, the more friction. Friction = draw. Latigo has a lot of draw. When you can feel the friction from the latigo, your making good contact between bevel and leather.

Profit.

Basically, I used the high draw properties of the latigo to figure out how to strop correctly by messing around with the draw of the leather.

Ok, all of that sounds good! I will put it into effect tomorrow.

Out of curiousity, what is this "draw" that everyone seems to mention sooner or later? Is that the friction between the strop and the blade? And between us, do you want more friction or less when you're stropping? Thanks!

Yes. Personal preference. Ultimately, draw amount is a product of the strop and strop material.

Thanks for the explaination mate, I didn't know that.

So, since you're all giving great advice, one more question too.

As I'm flipping the razor over, I find that I'm still making small nicks into the leather of my practice strop. That's cool, because it's what I got the practice strop for, but it raises two question for me.

Am I killing the edge on my razor, since I am basically cutting into leather now and then while stropping?

And how do I get these little nicks to stop? I've got a nice strop in a box that I'm too afraid to take out now!! Help.

well, the shave will tell you if you've killed the edge, but it is there to cut and generally it's durable enough for dozens if not hundreds of shaves.

you can sand the surface of the strop and then condition it with appropriate oil. pumice stone works best.

JeffE said:

So, since you're all giving great advice, one more question too.

As I'm flipping the razor over, I find that I'm still making small nicks into the leather of my practice strop. That's cool, because it's what I got the practice strop for, but it raises two question for me.

Am I killing the edge on my razor, since I am basically cutting into leather now and then while stropping?

And how do I get these little nicks to stop? I've got a nice strop in a box that I'm too afraid to take out now!! Help.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the only way to stop nicking the strop is through proper stropping technique.

That said, proper stropping technique means you stop flipping the razor in such a way that it will dig into the strop. The nicks happen because the edge is travelling towards the strop. Very bad. The edge should never travel towards the strop. To aid in stopping edge toward strop travel, continue the stropping motion while flipping the razor. Thus, when you stop the travel of the razor, the edge is already off of the strop surface. Thereby, saving your strop from the nicks that might have happened from moving the razor "backwards" when flipping.

leighton said:

Unfortunately, the only way to stop nicking the strop is through proper stropping technique.

That said, proper stropping technique means you stop flipping the razor in such a way that it will dig into the strop. The nicks happen because the edge is travelling towards the strop. Very bad. The edge should never travel towards the strop. To aid in stopping edge toward strop travel, continue the stropping motion while flipping the razor. Thus, when you stop the travel of the razor, the edge is already off of the strop surface. Thereby, saving your strop from the nicks that might have happened from moving the razor "backwards" when flipping.

Click to expand...

Thank, that's good advice. I nicked that practice strop again this morning, but I think I might be getting a little better. Need to pay a bit more attention to this, I think.

I've only used TM's vegan synthetic strop, cotton and pressed wool. I think I'm starting to get a hand on stropping, although doing this based on what others describe their experiences as (which is with real leather) is difficult! Is anyone else in the Boston area and proficient at using one of Tony's synthetics? Or maybe someone who is good at stropping and want to give a synthetic a try?

Really helpful thread, guys.

I'm awaiting arrival of TM strop (+ practice) any second now, and want to treat properly this razor I bought from Glen. So far I've been stropping on a newspaper (on knowledgeable advice, I promise!), so keen to hear all this before I actually set steel to leather!

Will watch the slo-mo video and report back.

My mechanics of stropping is to start moving the razor right before the edge touches the strop. this would be the last 1/4 or so of the flip.
If you get distracted you risk nicks and even deep cuts in the strop, in this case I just reset with placing the razor on the spine and continuing with the flip in the appropriate direction with the above described move.

leighton said:

To aid in stopping edge toward strop travel, continue the stropping motion while flipping the razor. Thus, when you stop the travel of the razor, the edge is already off of the strop surface. Thereby, saving your strop from the nicks that might have happened from moving the razor "backwards" when flipping.

Click to expand...

This is indeed a good thread for us Straight newbies! Leighton, I may have misinterpreted but isn't the motion you describe the dreaded "rolling" we must avoid? If not, then what is rolling? Thanks in advance!

leighton said:

Unfortunately, the only way to stop nicking the strop is through proper stropping technique.

That said, proper stropping technique means you stop flipping the razor in such a way that it will dig into the strop. The nicks happen because the edge is travelling towards the strop. Very bad. The edge should never travel towards the strop. To aid in stopping edge toward strop travel, continue the stropping motion while flipping the razor. Thus, when you stop the travel of the razor, the edge is already off of the strop surface. Thereby, saving your strop from the nicks that might have happened from moving the razor "backwards" when flipping.

Click to expand...

Great tip mate!

You can't nick if you can't touch!

texbilly said:

This is indeed a good thread for us Straight newbies! Leighton, I may have misinterpreted but isn't the motion you describe the dreaded "rolling" we must avoid? If not, then what is rolling? Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Here's my take on rolling. Others can correct me if I'm wrong.
1. Flipping the razor on the edge instead of on the spine. Essentially, this is backwards flipping.
2. Over-flipping the razor. This is where you actually flip it on the spine, but you don't stop soon enough. Essentially, flipping more than 180 degrees.
3. Flipping on the spine, but not reversing the direction soon enough. Essentially, stropping north/south, finishing the north pass, flipping correctly, but continuing the north stroke just a fraction of an inch....or more.

I've done all three and every time it was due to a loss of focus and everytime my heart sank. One of the attractions of straight shaving is that it demands total focus whether shaving, stropping honing, rinsing or even tending. The slightest distraction almost always results in something getting blunted, chipped or cut.

Is there a minimum stropping speed involved? Can I go slow and still strop effectively?

when perfecting the skill of stropping,
the slower the better, you see & learn as you go it's easier to correct errors
all just practice really
don't get to caught up on the whole stropping thing

Great advice here for a newbie like me. And here's one final question for the fray.

I now have a practice strop that has quite a few battle scars on it. I can see that I'm slowly getting better, as I haven't added any new cuts for at least a few days, but I am still using the same injured strop.

So here's the question -- does continuing to strop with a cut up piece of leather impair the stropping process or dull the blade? More specifically, what about those little flaps and grooves in the leather -- doesn't that create a bump or discontinuity that would affect the stropping? Or should I not worry about it? Thanks.