Thread: A Unified Theory of Honing and Stropping?

Did you measure that or is part of the theory?

Originally Posted by Howard

Did you measure that or is part of the theory?

Howard, that's approximate. I derived the 45 degrees from holding the razor canted back at about 45 degrees, and then drawing the razor diagonally down and across the hone while maintaining that canted position. Looking at the very edge of my daily razor under a 10X loupe, I observe what appears to me to be a striated pattern, the striations slanted about 45 degrees downward, from point to heel.

Did I mearsure it? No, but I guesstimate 45 degrees to be about accurate.


Scott

I think that all this thread is proving is that, like Einstien, we are unable to come up with a unified theory of honing and stropping!

Personally, I spent my first few weeks without a strop at all, just honed my edge to 0.5um on lapping films and had at it. I thought that stropping was for manic obsessives and lunatics, since even the Verhoven paper showed no change in edge with stropping, so I thought I was in the clear...

Now I find out that perhaps I am now an obsessive lunatic myself, as after finally getting a nice strop and learning how to use it -- my edges became MUCH nicer, keener, and gave better shaves.

Go figure.