Thread: Why the linen strop!!!!

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Hmm, steel and linen, steel and leather. If its untreated its unlikely to realy change the edge however it will through friction heat up the edge and the leather will dress up the edge. Small but very important changes in the edge which translates into big shaving improvements.

I agree. The article is ianaccurate but has the right idea. Your strop will not be sharpening anything, except on on a microscopic levle that doesn't matter.

I think the idea of warming the edge makes sense. Stropping pushes aroung these tiny teeth. Stropping hard on linnen can dmagae them, but stropping enough to warm the edge makes them more flexible, and you better able to push them around with the leather without breaking them.

"Hell, you could probably fart on a razor and waste a few hundred angstroms!"

Heyyyy, you might be onto something there! Reminds me of a contest I was once in...ahem, well, yes I think it's because it causes the coscumboogers to scmeeliate with the squeegums. JMHO, YMMV.

Dr. Tom, Ph.D in Flatulology

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

I agree. The article is ianaccurate but has the right idea. Your strop will not be sharpening anything, except on on a microscopic levle that doesn't matter.

Joe,
You always refer to how the fin "teeth" are microscopic and not visable eg. ost #21 ;Just to get you started, I'll tell you that the primary purpose for a strop is to realign the "fin", which is made up of microscopic teeth (you can't see them even at 200x).
So this sharpening the strop does on a microscopic level is not realy sharpening the microscopic fin teeth etc.
ROTFLOL

Linen must be useful to the shaver in stropping, why would they have put it together with strops for ALL those years?

Bless ya Joe, you do make me laugh

PuFF

Originally Posted by PuFFaH

Joe,
You always refer to how the fin "teeth" are microscopic and not visable eg. ost #21 ;Just to get you started, I'll tell you that the primary purpose for a strop is to realign the "fin", which is made up of microscopic teeth (you can't see them even at 200x).
So this sharpening the strop does on a microscopic level is not realy sharpening the microscopic fin teeth etc.
ROTFLOL

Linen must be useful to the shaver in stropping, why would they have put it together with strops for ALL those years?

Bless ya Joe, you do make me laugh

PuFF

Even at that level, it does not sharpen the fin, it judy aligns it. I admit that everything has to remove some material, but thestrops abrasiveness is so little compared to everything els we use that it's not considered abrasive.

I have heard two reasons for using the linnen: warming the edge and cleaning it before you put it on the leather. If you don't put abrasive on it, I don't see what else it could do? Have you heard of anything?

BTW, the use of linnen is controverial. For example, Lynn doesn't use it much and other guys with 25 years of experience swear by it, every shave. The barber manual, since 1931, has not taken sides.

Tonsils mus be useful for something. We're born with them, but mine were removed when I was a child. So, linnen has been there on some strops. Do you suppose it's there for any other reason than to sell strops?

BTW, I have seen the fin teeth in electron microscope shots at 3,000x+. Furi knife, I think, has a site where they posted such shots.

As far as I am aware, linen strop paste is very mildly abrasive;eg. talc or rottenstone is incorperated in the dressing. I make my own with rottenstone for one of my strops.
The use of the term, "strops only polish" does show that a strop removes enough material to effect the edge. A fresh honed razors edge will show greater shine and smoothness after a show on the strop. This to me proves that material has be removed, all be it a very small amount. When you are talking of such a microscopic edge this removal of material though small must have an impact on the edge let alone alignment.

PuFF

Originally Posted by PuFFaH

As far as I am aware, linen strop paste is very mildly abrasive;eg. talk or rottenstone is incorperated in the dressing. I make my own with rottenstone for one of my strops.
The use of the term, "strops only polish" does show that a strop removes enough material to effect the edge. A fresh honed razors edge will show greater shine and smoothness after a show on the strop. This to me proves that material has be removed, all be it a very small amount. When you are talking of such a microscopic edge this removal of material though small must have an impact on the edge let alone alignment.

PuFF

My edge looks shiny after a .5 micron strop, and I can't see a difference after leather, even at 100x. I didn't say normal stropping doesn't make a difference in the edge, otherwise I wouldn't strop after honing. I said it doesn't change the sharpness. It does smooth the edge by dulling the scratch lines left by a fine hone. Sharpness is usually measured by the thickness of the edge, and in a micrograph at 3,000x you can see it. To see the effect of stropping on thickness, you would probably need to go to 30,000x or more.

You need to draw the line somewhere on what you consider sharpening (significant material removal). Unfortunately, I don't know if there is such a line. I've seen 8K honing referred to as polishing (a leftover from knife sharpening), but to us it's clearly important material removal. I suggest that 5% of a .05 micron strop is not.

BTW, do you know what the abrasiveness of linnen paste is compared to diamond strop pastes (on some common scale)?

Joe
I would say that linen strop paste either talc or rottenstone is very very fine. It takes a long time for it to start to colour from stropping.
They are both used in French poilish for the final stages so thier abrasiveness must be very mild, more of a polish really.

PuFF