Thread: Cutting hands while stropping?

Since you strop with the edge trailing, even if you smack the razor into your hand by accident, the cutting edge is away.

It is not impossible, but improbable.

Put it this way, if you cannot maintain control of the blade well enough to avoid cutting your hand while stropping, you might want to avoid ever putting the blade near your face.

Just like when sight reading a challenging piece, you start out slowly until you get the hang of it. You should be fine.

Thanks everyone. I now feel confident that stropping will not be dangerous to my hands especially since the blade will always be away from the hand.

Originally Posted by July10newbie

Hello,

This is my third thread on my first day. Guess I have a lot of questions.

I saw videos on how to strop. My profession is a concert performing guitarist and composer. So my hands are my livelihood.

How common is it for someone to cut their hand(s) while stropping?

Any ideas on modifying the technique to minimize this risk?

I have never cut my hands doing anything with a straight razor.

My hands are generally covered in cuts. Not a single one of them has ever come from a razor. Avoid Formica, though.

If you are stropping correctly, meaning that the edge trails the razor movement for every stroke, it should be impossible for the edge to contact your fingers which hold the strop. By any chance are you stropping with the edge leading, ie going toward the fingers holding the strop? If so, that will cut both the strop and your fingers.

Well, my Father in Law did a number on his finger the very first time he tried it, but that was because he thought (or failed to think really) that he should stop stropping and rub his hand on the strop while holding the open razor and strop end in the same hand. Scared him stiff and he gave all the gear back to me. I'd feel guilty, but now I don't have to listen to him say, "I've always wanted to try that" for the rest of my life.

You should be watching out for your fingers when you're shaving. Most cuts to the digits seem to happen then, while switching hands for example or moving in for the stretch with one hand and the shaving stroke with the razor at the same time.