The Straight Razor Strop

If you make the switch from disposable razors to a straight razor you probably have most everything you need with the exception of one thing, a strop. Most quality shaving accessories are the same regardless of the type of razor that you use, with the obvious exception of the strop, only a straight razor required that. In it's most basic form a strop is nothing more than a strip of leather, but without it you would only be able to use a straight razor a couple of times before it became virtually unusable as a shaver.

A straight razor has an extremely sharp cutting edge, only having a width of .05 microns. While this makes it surgically sharp, it also makes it rather weak, just the act of cutting hairs and riding along the surface of the skin will cause the edge to roll over on itself creating what is referred to as a burr. This burr causes the razor to become more and more ineffective at cutting hairs and eventually it would become unusable. In fact, a freshly honed (sharpened) razor has this same burr simply by the action of the razor sliding cutting edge first on the hone.

The remedy to this is the strop. Swiping a straight razor (cutting edge trailing) on a leather strop realigns the edge, causing the burr to unroll and actually become part of the cutting edge again. This freshens up the cutting edge enabling it to effectively cut hair again. This process must be done before every shave or each shave, and your face, will suffer the consequences.

While good stropping will refresh the blade enabling the razor to shave well for months, up to 18 or so, between honings, poor stropping will render the razor unusable within weeks, or even days. I know this for a fact, when I first started out with a straight razor I felt like I was making my local honemeister independently wealthy with all the business I was giving him due to my poor stropping abilities.

So just how do you hone your newly acquired straight razor without turning into a butter knife? Just take it slow and easy and follow a few simple rules:

• Use very little pressure

• Use an X pattern on the strop

• Use very little pressure

• Make sure the strop is in good condition

• Use very little pressure

• Turn the blade on the spine, never on the blade

• Use very little pressure

• Pull the strop taut, but not too much

• And finally, use very little pressure

If you retained anything from the above list, it should be to use very little pressure! The blade should only lightly ride on the strop, too much pressure will do way more damage than good. It doesn't take much to unfold this burr, just the weight of the blade is enough.

You will be starting at the top of the strop and making your way to the bottom with the spine leading and the cutting edge following. Once you make it to the bottom of the strop you will flip the blade over the spine and lightly lay in back on the strop, the spin never leaves the strop. Never roll the razor over on the cutting edge! Once the razor is flip, slide back to the top of the strop. You have just completed one pass.

As the strop is not as wide as the blade (there is a good reason for this) you cannot just swipe the razor up and down the strop straight from top to bottom or you will not be treating the entire cutting edge. You will need to use an elongated X pattern as you go up and down. Start with the heel of the razor at the top right edge of the strop (if you're right handed) and by the time you get to the bottom of the strop the toe should just be passing the bottom left edge of the strop. The reason a strop is rarely as wide as the blade of the razor is due to the fact that as you pull the strop taut the strop tends to cup a bit, either the in a U shape or an inverted U shape, although hardly that extreme. A narrower strop minimizes this distortion making the razor contact the leather more evenly.

The more taut you pull the strop, the more pronounced this distortion becomes; however, if you don't pull the strop taut enough then you actually end up rounding off the cutting edge a bit due to the strop sagging a bit. Just don't try to rip the thing out of the wall and you should be fine.

I love the look of old antique strops but you'll never see me use one, the safe bet is to use a new, high quality strop. Antique strop most likely have seen better days, the leather is probably dried out and much less than smooth. A strop like this is just sitting there waiting to do horrible things to your razor's cutting edge. It's just not worth the risk. Get a new strop and maintain it, your razor and your face will thank you.

Now, how do you maintain this nice, new, smooth strop? Ask 50 people and you'll get 50 different answers. Answers that the giver will fiercely defend. I've seen people advise others to soak in saltwater, motor oil, and other unspeakable things. Do those methods work? I'll never find out. Some just use some shave soap on the strop every now and then, others briskly rub their palm up and down the strop using the oils in their skin to treat the strop. Personally, I use a small touch of neatsfoot oil a couple of times a years and that's served me well. I've also used mink oil but the neatsfoot seems to do a better job for me. Just use it sparingly, let it sit for a while, then wipe off the excess. I would do this when you won't be shaving for at least 24 hour just to give things time to settle.

Some strops have a canvas or linen side to them, these are a necessity if you hone razors as the linen or canvas is a bit more aggressive than the leather and gets rid of that post honing burr. I would say that it's nice to have but not required if you're just going to use the strop for pre and post shave razor treatments. I do use the linen side for about four passes before my 60 on leather.

How many passes do you need to do for basic razor maintenance? 20 or so would be the minimum and my 60 would be the maximum, in my opinion, others may feel differently. You should also do about three to five passes after every shave, after you rinse and dry the razor. These after shave passes remove any left over soap scum and other detritus from the blade, if not done the ultra thin cutting edge will pit almost overnight.

Just take your time, no reason to rush through this. Done right your razor will treat you right for months, done poorly, your razor will have its revenge.

Straight razor strop