I just said in my last post, "That friction is precisely why you have an abrasive action...". It seems that we are in complete agreement about that, then.
We are not in agreement at all. Abrasion relies on friction to remove metal. My hand must move to write. But does that mean every time my hand moves, I am writing? Same thing for friction. Plastic flow can also be caused by friction. That is the core of our disagreement. I say a clean leather strop causes the surface of the razors edge to deform at the smallest level. It does not (significantly) remove metal, it aligns it.
You, on the other hand have made a nice syllogism. Abrasion is caused by friction, a strop causes friction, hence a strop abrades.
My car drives on gasoline, gasoline is a fluid, hence my car will drive on fluid. That's really the only argument you've been repeating, and now you try to twist my words in that fallacy.
I don't like that.
I like the Engineering viewpoint because I am a real-life Engineer (in two different disciplines). Due to long established habit, I always look at most things like an Engineer would; because I am one...
In Europe, and I suspect in the US as well, the engineering courses focus heavily on scientific methods and research. If you google for surface finishing of steel, you 'll find an abundant amount of research articles about surface engineering. There are quite a few exiting things going on in that field.
I eagerly await you establishing that my statement "friction is precisely why you have an abrasive action" is in error. This will be very difficult in view of your own definitions above.
Here's a quote from a basic article about surface finishing:
"The task of the finishing medium is to control and reduce surface roughness through either abrasive action or by plastic deformation of the surface." (http://www.jh-vac.com/image/pdf/poli...%20English.pdf)
Here's another:
"Buffing is a smoothing operation which is accomplished more by plastic flow of the metal than by abrading."
http://www.public.asu.edu/~smurshed/...operations.pdf
If you look at a burnishing tool after using it, you will see particles from the burnished workpiece on the tool, and/or around the workpiece. Those particles are removed from the workpiece, through abrasive action...
Actually, If I look at my strop that has seen a lot of use in the past 2 years, I can't see any evidence of steel debris. However, if I look at my CrO pasted loom strop, that has seen very little use, there's plenty of black discoloration. I also checked at magnification (40X). The CrO strop shows black hazy high spots, with no discernable particles at that magnification, which is to be expected for debris abraded by 0.5 micron particles. The clean leather strop shows nothing of that kind.
You make my very point. Burnishing is an abrasive action. REF:
Vibratory tumbling machine vessel for burnishing obviously, as one simple example, uses abrasives.
I am amazed that you would call Verhoeven a moron...
Another twisting of my words, that only serves to get on my nerve.
It was you that called his research a joke: "I couldn't help but giggle when I read that a plain leather strop couldn't remove a burr.
This will come as a big (and humorous) surprise", you wrote a few posts ago. You also stated that he "needs a better technique, a much smaller burr, or maybe some different leather", while he actually used the same brand as yours (and some others as well), and he actually conducted extra experiments before he was prepared to change his orginal mindset (something all people with a scientific training must be always prepared for).
If myself, Butz, and others can remove a burr with a plain strop, then the action is noticeably significant. If it wasn't, we wouldn't be doing it.
Breaking off a small bur, can even be done by cutting a piece of paper, and there's always the possibility that your clean strop aligns the bur in "edge direction". I am certainly not advocating that stropping is futile. Only that, in main principle, it is not abrasive, but aligning.
Rest assured, the burrs are removed by abrasive action. Strop or hone. It is abrasive action due to friction. Without friction there is no abrasion.
With friction, you will have abrasion. They go hand-in-hand as I previously state.
Well you are wrong, 2 engineering degrees and tutoring classes doesn't change that one bit.
Once you do it yourself you'll see the error in Verhoeven's report. It's easier to do with a German chipcarving tool than a knife, but either will work. The real secret is to make the smallest burr possible.
I have no problems making my woodworking tools sharp. Mostly I use a Tormek machine that has a leather buffing wheel loaded with diamond compound.