Thread: Overstropping

Is it possible to actually strop your razor too many times causing the razor to become dull? I am asking this question for mainly on the canvas side, but also the leather side too.

Assuming proper technique is being employed I would have to say no. Or at least it hasn't happened to me, nor have I read about it happening to anyone else here. But going by the less is more philosophy of SRP I don't know why anyone would want to strop anymore than is necessary to achieve a great shave.

The same old barber who told me to avoid overhoning only do 4 or 5 weight of the blade strokes on a coticule I bought from him made a point of telling me that you can overstrop a razor. I believed those things until I came to SRP and learned to strop and hone. IIRC mparker762 has stropped a razor hundreds of laps and not only didn't make it dull .... it made a dull razor sharp. My routine is 50 and 50 on fabric and leather but everyone finds their own ratio that works for them.

Too much pressure, or too much "slack" can give rise to "too much stropping"
But if your technique is good, it should be fairly much impossible to over strop. At a certain point it wont be doing you any good though. Just making your arms tired and wearing out the goods!

I don't think you can overstrop however if you really try doing like hundreds of strokes it's more likely you arm might get tired or your strokes sloppy and you could wind up dulling your edge because of that which might lead you to think it was overstropped.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I don't think you can overstrop however if you really try doing like hundreds of strokes it's more likely you arm might get tired or your strokes sloppy and you could wind up dulling your edge because of that which might lead you to think it was overstropped.

Good point, TBS, can't say I thought of that. But then again I've never stropped so much that my arm became sore either.

I often observed the oldtime barbers back in the 40s, 50s and 60s literally slap their razors onto the strop which was sagging horribly in the middle and their razors shaved just fine after all that alleged abuse.

Today we are told not to let the strop sag and strop gently.

Originally Posted by mrsell63

I often observed the oldtime barbers back in the 40s, 50s and 60s literally slap their razors onto the strop which was sagging horribly in the middle and their razors shaved just fine after all that alleged abuse.

Today we are told not to let the strop sag and strop gently.

I actually have an old time barber, and while he doesnt slap it into the strop, he does press pretty darned firmly into it, and it does sag a bit, and his shaves are just fine. Sometimes I wonder if we just obsess for now reason. (maybe I should let me hones sag in the middle to match my strop?)

Originally Posted by Magpie

I actually have an old time barber, and while he doesnt slap it into the strop, he does press pretty darned firmly into it, and it does sag a bit, and his shaves are just fine. Sometimes I wonder if we just obsess for now reason. (maybe I should let me hones sag in the middle to match my strop?)

Maybe the barbers used to touch up on a barbers hone at the end of every day? That way it prob. didn´t matter much if they "abused" the strop!?

With good technique, you cant really overstrop. Poor technique will lead to a dull razor, but strops are not abrasive per se. They do affect the edge in a process called burnishing, but they're not abrasive like hones are so lots of strokes wont lead to a wire edge or anything.

I do 30 material and 60 leather before each shave, then 15 material and 25 leather afterwards and that works very well for me.