Honing/Stropping - the X and the Why

Guys:

This is the second time I've tried to post this question; I apologize if it appears twice.

It may have already been addressed but I'd like to get an explicit understanding.

Concerning the proper orientation of the blade on the hone/strop:

I assume the handle is to the right of the hone and the stroke begins at the left end with most of the blade at the left side of the hone. This will mean the stroke will proceed diagonally from left to right with the heel ending up at the far right (perhaps even off the hone) at t'other end.

1) When you strop a blade honed in this manner do you reverse the X? That is do you begin with most of the blade at the right side of the strop and pushing diagonally end up with the blade mostly at the left side of the strop? Again assuming you are holding the razor in your right hand and beginning the stroke on the strop closest to where you are holding it (the strop).

If there is a "grain" created by honing in the above manner then this method of stropping would go "with the grain".

Or do you strop "against the grain" meaning that you start at the left side of the strop and push diagonally towards the tethered end? Or does it not matter at all?

2) If there is some kind of "grain" imparted by honing in the above manner does it matter which way it is oriented? The way I outlined above or starting with the blade mostly on the right side of the hone and pushing diagonally to end with most of the blade on the left (perhaps the head of the blade is now off the hone)?

3) Can you get the same results from angling the blade on the hone at the begining of the stroke so that the edge is not perpindicular to the sides of the hone but has the head further along the hone than the heel? And then pushing/pulling strictly parallel to the sides of the hone?

It seems to me that this would be preferable in that the entire blade is always in contact with the surface of the hone whereas with the method I outlined at the beginning (so long ago - thanks for reading this far :) ) either the head or the heel (or even both) gets short shrift.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Best regards,
Bob

There is a grain when honing. I refer to them as striations. Stropping is done with a X pattern to fit the small strop, not in relation to meeting the striation angle. You could theoretically hone/strop with the tip leading as in your para 3 but its a difficult stroke and I wouldn't recommend it, atleast for the first couple of years. Heel leading I think would be easier, I've only tried it once like 2 years ago so I may not remember correctly but I believe I thought it was pretty difficult to keep the blade flat which is way more important than all the other stuff your getting wrapped up about.

If para 2 is only referring to honing and not honing and stropping, I'd say no the orientation isn't important BUT that each side of the blade's striations oppose each other probably is.

In both the honing stroke (edge leading)and the stropping stroke (edge trailing) use a heal leading angle. With the razor perpendicular to the hone angle the tip (toe) of the razor back to 1 O'Clock. On the strop use 11 O'Clock angle or more.

The directions I got with my Swaty the other day show heel leading and a straight stroke. I still do the X with it. May try heel leading. It does seem like it would be harder to keep the blade flat

I use the X motion stropping just as shown in Randy's avatar except withe the spine leading of course. I have tried inverting the action, so going from tip on the strop at the beginning to heel at the end, and found it is not as good a finish. Some guys do a straight push without any X motion at all.

X

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JAG

1) When you strop a blade honed in this manner do you reverse the X? That is do you begin with most of the blade at the right side of the strop and pushing diagonally end up with the blade mostly at the left side of the strop? Again assuming you are holding the razor in your right hand and beginning the stroke on the strop closest to where you are holding it (the strop).

If there is a "grain" created by honing in the above manner then this method of stropping would go "with the grain".

Or do you strop "against the grain" meaning that you start at the left side of the strop and push diagonally towards the tethered end? Or does it not matter at all?

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The stropping and honing motions are the same, except that the edge leads when you hone and the spine leads when you strop. Honing and stropping produce scratch lines. The stropping lines cross the honing lines, if you use an x-pattern.

Quote:

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2) If there is some kind of "grain" imparted by honing in the above manner does it matter which way it is oriented? The way I outlined above or starting with the blade mostly on the right side of the hone and pushing diagonally to end with most of the blade on the left (perhaps the head of the blade is now off the hone)?

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Preferably, the scratch lines when you hone run up and back towards the spine. That's what the x-pattern gives you.

Quote:

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3) Can you get the same results from angling the blade on the hone at the begining of the stroke so that the edge is not perpindicular to the sides of the hone but has the head further along the hone than the heel? And then pushing/pulling strictly parallel to the sides of the hone?

It seems to me that this would be preferable in that the entire blade is always in contact with the surface of the hone whereas with the method I outlined at the beginning (so long ago - thanks for reading this far :) ) either the head or the heel (or even both) gets short shrift.

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You can get the same scratch pattern with a wide hone by honing straight across the stone with the heel of the blade leading. The advantage of this approach is that it's easier to apply even pressure with the entire edge on the stone at the same time. With the x-pattern, the part of the blade which is never off the stone (the middle) gets the most honing, and with different parts of the blade off the stone at different times, it's possible to hone the edge unevenly.

Gentlemen:

Thanks for the help.

I've also discovered (by accident) that this topic has been touched on in the "Science of Pyramids" thread - very enlightening. I suggest that we end this thread and continue there if necessary.

My conclusion is that there are many ways to approach this issue and the only real test is the quality of the shave. I've got a lot of experimentation ahead of me I think.



Bob