Razor Strap Care

[Sherman]

Anyone have any experience with care and use of a razor strap?

I want to bring one into my kitchen and finish off my sharpening process with an inherited strap. The strap has been in a drawer for

40 years.

[dadiOH]

I've been using straight razors for 50 years, my strop is about that old. No special care, just charge it with red rouge. If yours also has a coarser, linen/canvas strop (most do) charge it with a coarser compound. There are special pastes available but I've never used anything other than the above. As far as that goes, you can strop with nothing on the strop.

To use, one rests the razor on the strop with blade and spine touching the strop, take a stroke (spine foremost), turn to other side, take another stroke. Repeat as necessary.

As you can see, the spine of the razor keeps the edge at a constant angle. You don't have a spine to do that on a knife. Even if there were such, I can't see stropping a kitchen knife...the purpose of stropping isn't so much to sharpen (although the rouge will slightly) but to form the edge and a razor's edge is wildly different from a knife's edge..

-- dadiOH ____________________________

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