Thread: Is a little strop slap ok?

When I do my stropping as I pull the blade towards me and turn it I always get a little slap from the flick of the blade between my thumb & index finger.

Now it is definately not lifting and I keep the strop nice and tight.
Do you think this is going to have a detrimental effect on my blade?

As long as it's not that "whapwhapwhap" sound you get in old barber movies you should be fine.

If you're not lifting the razor and slapping it down again then that's good. A bit of handling noise is fine...!

It's OK. Just remember to say, "yeah, who's your daddy now, huh?!"

Originally Posted by honedright

It's OK. Just remember to say, "yeah, who's your daddy now, huh?!"

Keep your pimp hand strong

Originally Posted by jaycey

Do you think this is going to have a detrimental effect on my blade?

In the hands of an experienced stropper (such as an old-time barber, which seems to be the type that employed this practice) there wouldn't be any ill effects. But newbs beware - it's a likely path to a rolled edge.

Originally Posted by honedright

It's OK. Just remember to say, "yeah, who's your daddy now, huh?!"

At this point in my straight career, the razor is definately still "The Daddy"!!


I must say that everything is coming together fine, just need to iron out the little errors and stop buying razors!

I found myself doing this just last week and some help from here came in very handy. I was not holding the blade effectively enough. Thumb and first two fingers on blade and ring finger and pinky curled around the handle. I was using about a dozen razors to practice with and noticed this on one of them that is a bit heavier than the rest.

The handle was a bit loose as well and as I stropped, the handle would move. I started with the handle straight with the blade (as much as possible) and as I stropped it moved to be about 20 degrees off straight. It seemed to curl in my hand. This added weight to the blade and as I flipped the added weight and not holding tight enough allowed the blade to slap. I tried holding tighter but then the flip did not work well so I decided to tighten the pin. With the pin tighter the handle did not move and all is well again...

At least it worked for me.

I try to strop and hone by not holding the razor by the scales. This puts less pressure on the pivot pin and whether the scales move makes less difference.

The old time barbers did it kind of like a show. The noise was created from the spine hitting the strop not the edge or anywhere near it. So as long as the edge isn't being whopped you're okay.