I have written on here in the past about the technique of corking razor blades to make them smoother. Here now is the technique of palm stropping razor blades which proponents say can make them smoother and make them last longer. When you look at a microscopic view of a razor’s edge you can see their point. Whatever you do, take extreme care, the potential for disaster when you are handling a naked blade like this is pretty high.
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Does that really make a difference? Apart from increasing the sales of Band Aids, I mean.
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@Ian
I have reason to believe that it might.
The blade edge is so very thin and the steel so soft that it tends to fold over in little flaps when used for cutting. Palm stropping partially corrects this.
Possibly.
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Some people swear by this technique, offering that this was the single most important thing they ever learned on a shaving forum.
Others believe it to be pure nonsense, a complete waste of time.
There are lots of other things people sit on the fence about, such as flipping the blade in the razor to produce a similar effect, even wear on both sides.
What do I do?
I do both, I pull out the blade, hand strop it, and then flip it. Does it make a difference for me? Not at all. Why do I do it? It’s part of the ritual. 😉
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Boy, does that take me back. I remember as a boy in the 1960s watching my father hand-strop his DE blades. I mistakenly assumed it was to speed up drying the blade having rinsed it after shaving! Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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of course it makes a huge difference…why else would a barber strop a straight razor…and…if you’ve ever sharpened a knife, stropping it on leather really tunes up the edge.