Originally Posted by
roughkype
I think the neatest honing particle out there is in the Belgian natural hones, the coticules. Those particles are called spessartine garnets; they are crystals that are shaped like little soccer balls, except that the patches that make up the soccer ball shape are flat crystal planes. Where 3 or more flat planes meet you get a cutting point. Because that cutting point is basically a sharp spot poking out from a sphere, it can only make a very shallow cut into a piece of passing metal. This is different from, say, a quartz crystal, which can be needle shaped and therefore cut a relatively deep groove into the passing metal. The shallow cuts from coticule honing make for very gentle shaving edges.
AxelH's description of what happens during stropping is the best I've read. I like its emphasis on damage repair. A human hair is as hard as a piece of copper wire of the same diameter, so yes, there will be some damage done each time you shave. Your thought of honing away that damage each time is sound, but I agree with Axel that it's a waste of steel. The strop will keep you going for at least a full week of shaving with a single razor before you actually need to hone again. Most of us strop after a shave, as part of putting away the razor. I do 20 laps, to make sure there's no residual soap or water to sit on the sharp edge and cause corrosion. Then, when it's time to shave again, 20 laps on the linen side and 80 on the leather to correct all the last shave's little bits of damage and remove the submicroscopic layer of inevitable corrosion.
Good questions by you.