Thread: What a Mess!

I'm getting the shaving down okay, and enjoying that part. My problem comes when stropping my razors. I have two new Dovo razors that were honed by Mr Abrams, so I know they were in great condition. After my shaves, I did about 20 passes on the strop and even going slow, i am putting in several small nicks on my strop. It is a 3" black latigo strop. The nicks are not large or deep, but they are on the top and bottom of the strop and all of them are towards the handle. Like I said, I am going slow and really trying to make sure I do it like I've seen in the videos. I've sanded the nicks down so they are smooth, but I am not sure what I am doing wrong to cause all the nicks. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

you're turning the razor before you've switched direction, or if you're stopping at the end of the stroke, then turning before you start the stroke in the opposite direction your hand is shaking.
the only thing that will fix the cuts is improvement of your stropping. it's based on muscle memory so practicing should help. if you have a junk dull razor use that, otherwise a butter knife could probably do as well.

keeping strop loose will do the same.

Thanks for the reply. believe its the latter of the two since I am making sure I turn the razor prior to starting the other direction. I will try the butterknife thing and look for another strop to practice on. I dont want to ruin this one this early into the game.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

keeping strop loose will do the same.

I am making sure I keep tension on the strop and dont think it is loose, but I will focus on that a little more. Thanks

One way or another the problem is in how you turn the razor. Either you're pulling back on the razor a bit just before you turn it, or your pushing it a bit just after you turn it.
Practice lifting the edge just as you reach the end of your forward motion, rolling the razor on the spine and putting the edge back down just as you start the motion in the other direction.

Originally Posted by HNSB

One way or another the problem is in how you turn the razor. Either you're pulling back on the razor a bit just before you turn it, or your pushing it a bit just after you turn it.
Practice lifting the edge just as you reach the end of your forward motion, rolling the razor on the spine and putting the edge back down just as you start the motion in the other direction.

You know, I just tried it with a butterknife and really watched my technique and I did notice that as I am pulling the razor toward the handle and as I flip the razor over on it's spine, the razor continues to move towards the handle causing the nicks in the strop. This happens even though I am going slowly. Muscle memory is not there yet and I guess it's going to take alot of practice.

Davidco,

when stropping make sure that you keep your hand level with the strop. Another cause of strop nicks is when your wrist drops a bit during a flip (on the right side of your strop if right handed)