Thread: Honing a Gold Dollar is hard!

stropping is a controversial topic, a strop after shave can realign the edge. That is true from personal experience.

what schechter said is that stropping upto 10 times retains the sharp edge, but stropping way above that or even the 11th time on a strop can curve the edge slightly. He observed this on a high powered electron microscope which most people do not have access to. Why should I not believe him.

we strop so that the edge is comfortable sharp and not scary sharp that irritates the skin. We strop on palms so that edge loses some of it's scary sharpness and behaves more humane. the human palm is not exactly a plain surface, it is very contoured leather even if we hold it as straight as we can.

This is tiring, now were using expensive microscopes on these razors, to prove what? We ought to have a thread devoted to this over and over again exam of cheap razors. Let's get back to honing and shaving, the skills that give you a great shave. The enjoyment of holding a razor you have honed, and the sting of astringent. If you want to own such razors, fine, but save us the endless diatribe on your brilliance at getting it sharp.

Originally Posted by almond

>> what I considered a good edge 3 years ago I would not even have in my rotation.

typically I would have accepted his, had I not lurked across other threads in this forum. And not followed howard schechter on youtube, when he says the edge is as sharp as can be straight from the hone. But once it is stropped, the sharpness gets dulled,

now on this very forum the DE subforum has people complaining how the brand new feather is very harsh on their skin. They say that it takes a few shaves to soften up a bit and then gives a great shave. Doesn't that mean people really do not require a wicked edge, they need an edge that is comfortable on their skin.

my obsession with the gold monkey is because it is like an errant child, and demands more of my attention. I am obsessed with it because it often misbehaves and I feel, rightly or wrongly, that I can set it right. the incoming USB microscope will tell me how much close I am to a great edge.

Originally Posted by almond

stropping is a controversial topic, a strop after shave can realign the edge. That is true from personal experience.

what schechter said is that stropping upto 10 times retains the sharp edge, but stropping way above that or even the 11th time on a strop can curve the edge slightly. He observed this on a high powered electron microscope which most people do not have access to. Why should I not believe him.

we strop so that the edge is comfortable sharp and not scary sharp that irritates the skin. We strop on palms so that edge loses some of it's scary sharpness and behaves more humane. the human palm is not exactly a plain surface, it is very contoured leather even if we hold it as straight as we can.

There's nothing controversial about stroping. See here:

https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com...-stropping-do/

This shows you not only what precisely stropping does, but also why your feather blades start out a little prickly and uncomfortable. Note the pictures at the bottom that show the coating that wears off in a shave or 2.

There's also some good information here:

https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com...d-keen-part-2/

I hope it is not just me thinking like this but I don't understand how stropping seems to get so hard for some people. If you can push the salt & pepper shaker out of the way to set your plate down on the kitchen table or pull the salt & pepper toward your plate at the kitchen table to spice your food, why can't people strop a razor ?

The pictures that are magnified I could not determine what they were with out reading about it . I thought the first was some kind of dermal layer of skin and the second was a pound or two of clay in an art class. They are to magnified to help me unless I was looking to see how the carbon atoms bind together to make up the steel I honestly couldn't tell what was coating and what was steel.

The bottom 2 pictures on the stropping page, the darker areas toward the top and inside the stria are the coating they put on a DE razor's edge.