Show Tech 3260 Medium Stripping Knife If you’re looking for a universal knife for all short and medium parts, then we advise you to use the medium. This type of blade is ideal for stripping the jacket of Fox Terriers/ the back of a Westy, but for all other work as well. These wider teeth can pull out a lot of hair at once and are great when you haven’t hand stripped for a while. This is ideal to use the 3260 Medium stripping knife for more detail work, finishing work on the jacket. Difference between left or right handed : What’s maybe equally important is the fact that we offer the stripping knives for both lefties and righties! To see the difference, you should look at the teeth. Each knife blade has a front with short serrations (where the teeth are), while at the back of the blade; the serrations are a lot longer because they’ve been ground at this side. If you are right-handed and hold the stripping knife in the right way, you are going to see the shorter serrations. How to use a stripping knife ? Take the stripping knife in your dominant hand and make sure you see the front of the blade. To know which side is which, you should look where the shortest serrations are. This is the front side. Hand stripping consists of two steps: first you gently push the hair up and against the hair growth, next you pull at the hairs that are sticking out. Push the coat upwards with your thumb and close the hairs in by placing your thumb against the blade of the underside of the stripping knife. Now some hairs of the top coat are between your thumb and the blade. Then, pull the hairs away from the coat and in the direction of the coat growth. While doing so, it is really important to hold the skin tightly with your free hand, so you only pull at the hairs at not the skin. Though it is important to take your time while hand stripping, the pulling itself should be done in a quick motion and with only a few hairs at once. Repeat this process until the desired length is reached. To avoid joint problems, always keep your wrist in a straight position and don’t turn it downwards while hand stripping. If you want to avoid shoulder problems, it is important to pull with just your forearm and to keep your upper arm still. There is a difference in holding the knife for detailing or for example stripping the jacket. Depending on the size of the area you’re stripping, you should either use your full thumb or the tip. If you want to hand strip your dog’s jacket, you have to put your full thumb on the full length of the knife. For small or sensitive areas, it’s better to use only the tip of your thumb on the top of the knife. This way, you get to work with more precision. An even better way is using different sizes of stripping knives ( Fine, Medium, Coarse, … ) If you are new to grooming or aren’t sure if you’re doing it right, you can perform a self-test. When you have pulled a few hairs, sprinkle them on an A4 piece of white or other contrasting colour paper. This way, you can investigate the pulled hairs. If they have the full length and contain no broken or short parts, kudos to you, because this means your technique and stripping knife are good!