Thread: Why use a 3 micron alsa strop when I can use a 3 Micron hone ?

Question: When I bought my strop it came with a 3 micron balsa strop. Recently i honed my first razon on my own using lapping film. One of the films I have is a 3 micron film.

My question is... why not use the 3 micron film and hone/lap, instead of using the balsa strop ! I can follow it up with a .3 micron lapping film too.

Please advise.

Allen

Well each serves a different purpose. A stone will general be used to take a razor with a freshly (re)-established bevel from a less polished state to a more polished state. A pasted strop, whether balsa or fabric is used to touch up a used to touch up a razor between honing sessions. Also as discussed in the Too Sharp thread some use stones that leave a razor too sharp feeling for that users preference so a few turns on a pasted strop will improve the feel of the edge.

If you got the poor mans strop deal from whipped dog the pasted strop is intended as a cheap touch up strop for those on a budget. Also a very low learning curve for a strop verses a stone.

Keep asking questions, there is no faster way to learn.

Jonathan

but why not use my 3 micron lapping film to hone instead of he 3 microm balsa strop ? wont it giv the blade the same edge ? will it take off too much metal ? I dont understand.

thanks
allen

Pardon the bluntness but a strop is not for honing. Honing removes a lot of material compared to stropping. Also in honing the edge leads, in stropping the spine leads. Lapping film on a hard flat surface can be used for both.

Now that the frustration is out.

A hard surface such as a hone or lapping film on a plate of glass will not conform to the shape of the razor but will make the razor conform to the surface. This is good for honing but bad for stropping.

A strop, even a balsa or backed strop, will conform to the shape of the razor. This is good for stropping but bad for honing.

If I'm still not getting your question answered please restate it in a different way for me.

Jonathan

Many people here are very pro-hone, but there are some people who use pasted strops as a very large part of their "honing" progression. Its just different strokes for different folks.

First off grit size is only one part of the equation, even equal grit size doesn't really mean that two different grits will cut the same.. ie: CrOx vs Diamond vs CBN vs CeOx all these even in the same size will cut differently

Even 3 Micron lapping flim can be different depending on whether it is Si or Al

Now lets toss in that the CrOx is most likely not 3 micron but rather .50 micron or perhaps .30 micron,, 3 micron is close to 5k in stone speak...


Next you have the actual difference in how the grit particles work with the medium that they are applied to, or part of ie: the matrix. what holds the grit together, and how much of that grit is exposed to the steel..

This all get pretty deep pretty fast so let's back up and KISS it,

Try it out and see how it feels on the face, the shave test is what counts in the end, and just so long as you are not damaging the steel (You could create a frown if yer not careful using stropping strokes) then use it...

Originally Posted by aseidman62

...why not use the 3 micron film and hone/lap, instead of using the balsa strop!

As you seem to have done, save the strop for touch up's.
Because using a pasted strop on a freshly honed razor can hide deficiencies in the honing. Going from the hones to a shave test without any stropping is an excellent test of your honing. I trust you have a pro honed razor to compare your efforts to. Otherwise you are just raising the difficulty of the learning curve.

Congratulations on the first razor honing. Please post a SOTD

Jonathan

+1 to Glen, a lot of variables being thrown into the equation at one time; which if something isn't right you really don't know where to start to solve the problem. The lapping films are usually used adhered to plate glass or marble tile, but the strokes are usually done w/ a honing stroke and not a stropping. You can go down pretty low w/ the micron ratings... 0.25 I have heard almost makes the edge brittle, and can be too sharp and irritating for some. Most of what I have read pretty much describes the films as a replacement or supplement to stones, but stropping on just plain leather will be something you need to do anyway. The most common progression I've seen has usually been; 5u, 3u, 1u, 0.5u, crox to smooth out the edge, then strop on leather or 0.25u then strop on leather.