Frustrations of a straight razor newbie

The Lads have Said it All Above..Nothing to Add..Except..It Does Need Stropped After Every Shave...Dont Worry about Knacking the Edge Whilst Stropping...I Will Do a 1st Refresh for Free Just Return Postage is All...That Razor Took a Superb Shaving Edge by the Way..Its a Learning Curve is All..I Couldnt Get a Shave from a Proper Shave Ready Razor Neither when I 1st Started..:cool:

Billy
 
my strops, not an enthusiastic user finding it rather tedious, still a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

denim - ok
linen - good - made my own from a towel
leather- cut and ruined
leather - tested with cromox but made a thick uneven mess so ruined - user error in combination with maybe not the best cromox
leather - cheap chinese that came with Titan razor - not bad - still using it after two years but looking for a new more fancy just to compare
 
my strops, not an enthusiastic user finding it rather tedious, still a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

denim - ok
linen - good - made my own from a towel
leather- cut and ruined
leather - tested with cromox but made a thick uneven mess so ruined - user error in combination with maybe not the best cromox
leather - cheap chinese that came with Titan razor - not bad - still using it after two years but looking for a new more fancy just to compare

0000 grade wire wool is your friend.

If you have cut a leather strop you can repair it with contact adhesive. Apply, leave for 10 minutes then work the cut back down with a teaspoon - press hard. Leave for 24 hours and work strop balm in. If it is too bumpy you can treat it further with the wire wool or a very high grit emery paper or lapping film. Always sand in one direction so you don't lift the cut flap. You may find that you can no longer use the strop as a plain finisher but it should still work well with black or white strop paste.

For the strop ruined with CrOx you can clean it with camelia oil or strop balm and the wire wool or if really bad a wire brush followed by a brand new clean shoe brush. I have abused and renovated some of my strops like this for years and some are the best strops I have. Stressed and restored leather can be better than a clean strop. YMMV
 
I wouldn't worry about brands necessarily - local makers produce the best ones. One of the great things about paddle strops is that you don't need to pay for a long thick heavy piece of leather. Because the leather is mounted you can get away with cheaper thinner materials.

I agree with the recommendations above for sources. PetersEaters are very good. The IE one that I have has two napped sides, which is annoying. The Strop It one is a gimmick - and of course I have one! It's good but you need the sprung razor version.

Have a look for an eBay seller called billyji1. His strops are are excellent and inexpensive. He also happens a very fine honemeister (50 years+ experience) ... For when you are in the market for you next razor.
Yep hadn't spotted it was napped leather both sides. That's a bit stupid. Link removed :D
 
Practise and more practise. I remember starting out and thinking the razor wasn't sharp enough - 100% technique and muscle memory. Dont feel like you have to complete every shave with the straight - its ok to tidy up with DE. 50+ shaves to get anywhere near a great total result with straight only for me. But when it's good - incomparable :)
 
Yep hadn't spotted it was napped leather both sides. That's a bit stupid. Link removed :D
I have one of those paddle strops with napped leather on both sides, I like it and it works and work's well, you can strop on cork, balsa wood, news paper denim leather any number of thing's, I've got that napped strop, horse leather, cow's leather they all work, you can pull off your leather belt and strop a razor, folk shouldn't get hung up on what they are stropping on rarther than their stropping technique, shit you can strop on your palm of your hand if you had to. YMMV :) P
 
I have one of those paddle strops with napped leather on both sides, I like it and it works and work's well, you can strop on cork, balsa wood, news paper denim leather any number of thing's, I've got that napped strop, horse leather, cow's leather they all work, you can pull off your leather belt and strop a razor, folk shouldn't get hung up on what they are stropping on rarther than their stropping technique, shit you can strop on your palm of your hand if you had to. YMMV :) P

I've heard people say that about palm stropping ... I haven't tried it out of fear but I suppose accidentally slitting your palm or wrist open is no worse than your neck or face:p

I knew you had one of those as if I remember rightly it came up on the BST here for a very reasonable price and when I looked you beat me to it by about 5 mins! Haha.

I would just worry about it being my only one - I like to use regular leather just before I shave, but as you so rightly pointed out, YMMV. Some people probably don't!
 
I've heard people say that about palm stropping ... I haven't tried it out of fear but I suppose accidentally slitting your palm or wrist open is no worse than your neck or face:p

I knew you had one of those as if I remember rightly it came up on the BST here for a very reasonable price and when I looked you beat me to it by about 5 mins! Haha.

I would just worry about it being my only one - I like to use regular leather just before I shave, but as you so rightly pointed out, YMMV. Some people probably don't!
I have five strops in all, three cow leather one horse leather and the napped paddle strop and I get the best results on the napped leather paddle and on the napped side of one of my hanging strops in cow leather.
It's all about a light Stropping action for me and seems to get very good results but YMMV and folk have to do what works fo them. I would like to make a cork paddle strop sometime, I hear it's extremely good for Stropping.
I saw a guy Palm stropping a Kamisori just as I remember seeing a barber in London doing the same thing with a straight, so the medium is not all important it's the tecnique, but again YMMV :)
Have a nice day :) P.
 
I have five strops in all, three cow leather one horse leather and the napped paddle strop and I get the best results on the napped leather paddle and on the napped side of one of my hanging strops in cow leather.
It's all about a light Stropping action for me and seems to get very good results but YMMV and folk have to do what works fo them. I would like to make a cork paddle strop sometime, I hear it's extremely good for Stropping.
I saw a guy Palm stropping a Kamisori just as I remember seeing a barber in London doing the same thing with a straight, so the medium is not all important it's the tecnique, but again YMMV :)
Have a nice day :) P.
Maybe I need to broaden my horizons and give some other media a try. Cheers Paul, you too!
 
There is Nothing Wrong with Experimenting Regards Strops...Whilst All this Hand Stropping, Cork this & Denim That are Well Intended..Its Only Gonna Confuse a Beginner...Most of it is Useless to a Beginner...Best Advice I Can Offer is Just Stick to a Normal Strop...Hanging or Paddle...Folks think they are Gonna Learn to Shave & Strop a Razor Overnight...Well..They Aint...o_O

I Reckon it Takes around 100 Shaves to Get Comfortable with Shaving & Stropping SRs & Maintaining SRs In General with Pastes as a Normal Part of Stropping...I Hit My Razors for 2 or 3 Strokes on 0.2 Red Rhodium Paste After Every Shave as Normal Part of My Stropping Routine...For a Beginner I Would Recommend Maybe 15/16 Strokes on 0.5 Chro/Ox Every 3/4 Shaves or So to Get the Feel of it & Take it from there..:p

Shaving & Maintaining SRS Takes a Moment...I Can Tell Ya for a Fact After Honing Hundreds & Hundreds of Blades...The Guys of Days Gone By were NOT Any Better at Honing & Maintaining Straight Razors...That is to Say Over the Last 100 Years or So...Most Were Never Bevel Set Properly Never Mind Anything Else...:cool:

Billy
 
There is Nothing Wrong with Experimenting Regards Strops...Whilst All this Hand Stropping, Cork this & Denim That are Well Intended..Its Only Gonna Confuse a Beginner...Most of it is Useless to a Beginner...Best Advice I Can Offer is Just Stick to a Normal Strop...Hanging or Paddle...Folks think they are Gonna Learn to Shave & Strop a Razor Overnight...Well..They Aint...o_O

I Reckon it Takes around 100 Shaves to Get Comfortable with Shaving & Stropping SRs & Maintaining SRs In General with Pastes as a Normal Part of Stropping...I Hit My Razors for 2 or 3 Strokes on 0.2 Red Rhodium Paste After Every Shave as Normal Part of My Stropping Routine...For a Beginner I Would Recommend Maybe 15/16 Strokes on 0.5 Chro/Ox Every 3/4 Shaves or So to Get the Feel of it & Take it from there..:p

Shaving & Maintaining SRS Takes a Moment...I Can Tell Ya for a Fact After Honing Hundreds & Hundreds of Blades...The Guys of Days Gone By were NOT Any Better at Honing & Maintaining Straight Razors...That is to Say Over the Last 100 Years or So...Most Were Never Bevel Set Properly Never Mind Anything Else...:cool:

Billy

I fully agree it was never my intention to confuse anybody, I was replying to a post that implied that a napped leather strop was somehow stupid and felt the need to step up and say I use such a strop and it works very well indeed, as you say someone new at this should stick with a normal strop and learn how to use that before experimening with anything else. P.
 
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