Lessons in stropping

 Stropping was one of the hardest skills for me to pick up when I started this straight razor journey. It's tough for many, as I hear and can imagine. The motion is the polar opposite of honing and shaving and it's amazingly easy to do it wrong and wreck a perfectly good shaving edge.

As I've written I even have experimented with forgoing the strop and just shaving off the stone but that's not the answer; learning to strop properly is and, like everything else it takes practice and patience.

But I didn't really get how much an effect the strop can have on a dullish edge or a sharp edge that you want to take to the next level until I shaved with my Sheffield 5/8 near wedge that was not really shave ready and then I put it on the strop. WOW>

It went from a rough tug of war to an effortless glide with 40 laps in linen and 60 on leather. Crazy! I did the same thing last night with my Bridge Russian and got the same result. I really have to start experimenting with how long I can maintain an edge now with just the strop.

Experienced shavers and honemeisters say they get no less than 20 great shaves off a good edge with JUST maintenance on the strop. Don't know if I have that much patience but I should experiment more.

TOday is the day I get my Cretan Hone  too. can't wait. So I guess my strop experiment will get the back burner as I'm already anxious to play with the new hone and see what it can do:))