Thread: Why Strop after honing if razor is shaving?

Still very much a newb, but it hit me tonight after honing on my Norton 4K/8K. Stropping is more for maintenance, as basic as this sounds, correct? Again, great forum!-Gearhead

You don't have to, in fact it is a good test of honing to try a shave without stropping... then after you try it change it up and test again after honing
try stropping linen and leather, try stropping just leather

Basically try it all then go with what works better for you...

Thanx Gssixgun! Again, really enjoyed the honing video with you and Speedster!-Gearhead

You should do an experiment. You should hone, strop and shave, and then once in a while try shaving without stropping after honing. I found the actual feel really very different. I was going to say it was harsher, but I think that's the wrong term; it was more raw, but not unpleasantly so. I think on my skin it felt more like that very first time I shaved with a straight. I think your skin changes; toughens up after a while; and shaving after honing without stropping sort of emulates that feeling for me.

Carl

There's supposedly also a cleaning component to stropping--getting off skin crud, helping dry the edge.

30 years ago I asked 70 year old barber, who had 50 years in the biz, that question. "Straightens the edge." was his reply. Once when I was speaking with Lynn about honing on the phone he pointed out that the very edge of a full hollow is not much thicker than a piece of tin foil. I thought of what Frank had told me years before. No idea if it is accurate but if the edge is that thin seems like it might be.

I do know from HHT results that my razors are more likely to pass after stropping than before. The 1961 barber manual excerpt on honing and stropping, in the SRP library shaving related help files, recommends barbers always strop the razor before shaving a customer. Maybe I'm just not curious enough but I've never done a straight razor shave without stropping first.

Finally, suppose you tried using a straight razor without stropping and found out you didn't need it at all ? You'd be depriving yourself of having beautiful pieces of leather and linen hanging in the shave den. You couldn't grab them and rub your palm over them caressing them. Enjoy the anticipation of the next shave as you stropped your freshly honed blade on some luxurious shell that was once a part of a horse's buttock. I love stropping and strops. YMMV.

I agree with Carl here on the first time feeling without it. The stropping seems to add a hint of smoothness for me, which I prefer over just sharp as you can humanly get it. All falls to what floats yer boat.

Originally Posted by gearhead222

Still very much a newb, but it hit me tonight after honing on my Norton 4K/8K. Stropping is more for maintenance, as basic as this sounds, correct? Again, great forum!-Gearhead

If you have a chance to try and edge finished on a higher grit stone or a natural you will see the benefit of stropping. The edge will feel more refined the higher on the grit scale you go, but a stropped edge will top all of them. Stropped edge just feels smoother to the cheek than unstropped one.

One thing I have noticed is that the first time out an edge doesn't hold its sharpness through the shave quite as well as successively with the same sharpening but after a stropping or two. In violin making we use scrapers with knife-sharpened, very fine edges turned with a burnisher to have a slight hook (done correctly, this is barely visible and doesn't make the edge ragged; wrong, the way a lot of home woodworkers do it, and it destroys the metal at the edge and give a ragged result.) As it's used, one repeatedly straightens out and re-turns the edge hook. The first couple of times it doesn't hold the hook too well, but with successive turns it maintains much better, is sharper because it's stiffer, and long lasting. It even feels different as you turn it with the burnisher. I sense the same experience and changes over time as I'm using my razors.

Work hardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm pretty sure this type of work hardening is what's happening both with scrapers, and with the slight bending back and forth of the tip of the edge that a strop probably does. I haven't seen work hardening mentioned at all with regard to razor steel.

Originally Posted by mdarnton

One thing I have noticed is that the first time out an edge doesn't hold its sharpness through the shave quite as well as successively with the same sharpening but after a stropping or two. In violin making we use scrapers with knife-sharpened, very fine edges turned with a burnisher to have a slight hook (done correctly, this is barely visible and doesn't make the edge ragged; wrong, the way a lot of home woodworkers do it, and it destroys the metal at the edge and give a ragged result.) As it's used, one repeatedly straightens out and re-turns the edge hook. The first couple of times it doesn't hold the hook too well, but with successive turns it maintains much better, is sharper because it's stiffer, and long lasting. It even feels different as you turn it with the burnisher. I sense the same experience and changes over time as I'm using my razors.

Work hardening - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm pretty sure this type of work hardening is what's happening both with scrapers, and with the slight bending back and forth of the tip of the edge that a strop probably does. I haven't seen work hardening mentioned at all with regard to razor steel.

We normally call that "Overhoned" when it comes to Straight Razors.

It is a rather catchall term around here, but basically refers to taking the edge too far, and creating an "burr" (edge hook) or a fagile harsh edge