Thread: Wrist Bending

I am just starting out and i want to nip a bad habit before it gets too ingrained.

I have short somewhat stubby fingers. When i try to roll the razor between my thumb and index finger, i can only get it to roll about 165 degrees comfortably. Can i bend my wrist slightly to get that last 15 degrees?

corner,

I do; been doing it for years to no ill effect. Hope it works OK for you.

I had to relearn stropping to avoid the wrist turning. I found that holding the tang between the tips of the thumb and forefinger to be the best way to flip the razor without bending the wrist.

Here is the 1961 barber manual excerpt from the SRP Wiki help files. They say to practice flipping the razor without doing the stroke until you are proficient. Read the last two pages after the honing. Very good info IMO. Doing it their way allows for a better feel and more control over how much pressure is applied to the edge.

I think you'll find most people do have a little wrist bend when they strop. One way to avoid excessive amounts of it is to pay attention to how you actually hold the razor between your fingers - you can adjust your thumb and forefinger on the shank a little to allow for greater flipping rotation, and as long as you still have control and feel comfortable, that could mitigate the wrist movement a bit.

Another thing I have noticed is that how you hold the scales in your other fingers can have an effect on the amount of wrist rotation. I discovered this after a discussion with PuFFaH in the chat one day, where he told me he simply rests the scales on his little finger, rather than taking a light grip on the scales (his ring finger does not touch the scales at all, if I understood him right). Now, I've learned a lot about stropping from reading his posts (and others like AFDavis and HonedRight), so I gave it a try. Lo and Behold! The wrist movement that always accompanied my stropping (small, but ever present) vanished almost completely. Yes, I will admit I slightly nicked my strop the first time I did it, but that was my fault completely and nothing to do with the technique. Since then I've been going great guns, and feel that, yet again, my stropping has improved.

That, I think, is the marvellous thing about shaving with straights. To make an analogy with Darwin's theory of Natural Selection - any improvement, however slight, that provides any benefit, however small, to the user, is kept and passed on via questions and answers in the forums and by feedback at each shave. We are constantly evolving, by infinitesimal degrees, and this evolution is husbanded by the careful and wondrous variety of what we might call Shaving Selection, whereby at each shave (which we might equate to a generation in Darwin's parlance) techniques injurious to the user are gradually weeded out, and techniques beneficial, in however slight degree, are kept and passed along to the next "generation".

James.

I've found that when you are using a razor that is way off balance towards the scales it really affects how you strop as does unusual configurations like those razors with the long monkey tail and shorter shank and Traditional Japanese razors too. I find in those cases I have to alter the way I hold the razor and I have to go way slower. It simply doesn't feel right as you strop.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

That, I think, is the marvellous thing about shaving with straights. To make an analogy with Darwin's theory of Natural Selection - any improvement, however slight, that provides any benefit, however small, to the user, is kept and passed on via questions and answers in the forums and by feedback at each shave. We are constantly evolving, by infinitesimal degrees, and this evolution is husbanded by the careful and wondrous variety of what we might call Shaving Selection, whereby at each shave (which we might equate to a generation in Darwin's parlance) techniques injurious to the user are gradually weeded out, and techniques beneficial, in however slight degree, are kept and passed along to the next "generation".

James.

I don't know. That sounds more like Lamarckian inheritance to me.

If you watch Bart's stropping video on you tube you can see his wrist is locked and doesn't move at all (at least to my naked eye). He told me about an old barber trick of putting a coin on the back of your hand and practice stropping like that, the coin shouldn't fall off your hand. I can't do it, it's VERY hard. I am still practicing with no wrist turn though, I feel my edges are a lot better now because of it, and they last longer.

Just tried stropping with the coin and can't do it either..... not because of a turned wrist but I start with my hand angled. Maybe a dab of super glue ?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Just tried stropping with the coin and can't do it either..... not because of a turned wrist but I start with my hand angled. Maybe a dab of super glue ?

Naa, Jimmy you have to break your wrist and set it crooked so when it heals it will be ideal for stropping.

+1 to all the advice already given!

When I'm flipping the razor over, I make sure I have the middle of the tang on the ball of my thumb and thumb. This seems to be a good place for my to park the razor and it means I can flip the razor over with just the movement of my fingers.

Take a butter knife and put it on the strop like you were going to strop a razor and just practice flipping it over and back again. Work out where it feels the most comfortable to hold the razor and where to hold it so you can flip it over with the least movement.

Good luck and keep us posted!