A Unified Theory of Honing and Stropping?

[honedright]

Well, maybe not. Sounded cool though.

The idea has been developing for several days now, and just sort of gelled on my drive to work today. It derives it's basis from all that I know and have learned with much trial and error over the years. Am I making too much out of nothing? Probably, but I'm sure the SRP jury will soon tell. Is this really new? Again probably not. But maybe put together in a new way.

So here's my thought:

1) Honing - Basically honing is a pushing movement causing forces to go in the direction of the razor edge towards the back or, spine. This not only creates the micro-serrations, but also (note: my theory next) slightly crumpling (Edit: since it was pointed out that "crumpling" may not be the best word, I've decided that "compacting" may be more accurate) the delicate edge of the razor.

Also, the micro-serrations are created at an angle, preferably 45 degrees downward from point to heel of the razor. If you think of all the different angles the micro-serration could take, the downward 45 deg, seems to me to be the most effective for cutting (I'll go into why I think this at a later time).

So the end result of honing: downward angled, slightly crumpled micro-serrated cutting teeth.

2) Stropping - the next thing needed is to un-crumple (Edit: un-compact) the edge and draw/ pull the "teeth" out as straight and as flat as possible. We would want to do this as much along with the angle of the teeth/ striations as possible. Stropping forces that go across the striations might tend to deform, or somehow negatively affect the cutting edge. Also, we need to generate enough force to do this. If I remember correctly, part of the force equation includes velocity. I've recommended for some time speed stropping and now it makes sense. It seems that a slow stropping stroke just would not have the force necessary to pull the edge out sufficiently.

There are a couple of different ways I can think to generate directional force along the lines of the angled teeth. One way would be to strop as if you were back-honing on a hone. I don't believe that this would offer enough space to develope the velocity needed to draw out the teeth and edge in between the teeth sufficiently.

The other way is the sweeping X pattern that I have described many times before. This does allow a high velocity stroke, and by variably angling the razor throughout the stroke, the forces remain generally along the 45 degree downward angle of the teeth.

So there it is in a nut shell. I have more to add, but need to clock in here at work. I'll let the community here have at it for a while and see if anyone has something to say or add


Scott