Thread: Why do we still use a clean leather strop?

I use a leather strop for all the reasons mentioned above, but also because it is what our forefathers did. I just really appreciate the tradition. I will not stop stropping my razors anytime soon.

I am on to my Tenth consecutive shave with a Puma, using only a strop, performing well still. I have heard of 100 and more. To say leather has no abrasive qualities cannot be correct for a razor with ten or more shaves on it. I get three or four out of a DE blade.

Last week I honed and stropped my freshly-restored Wade & Butcher. It shaved well but was fairly rough. Somebody (chevhead?) persuaded me to strop some more instead of taking it back to my finisher, so I did -- I stropped another round of 60/120 (cloth and leather respectively) and then it shaved smoother than any razor I've used before.

My verdict: stropping makes a huge difference. Now I'd rather sell my razors before I'd sell my strop! I bet I could still shave with it, too.

I strop every day, when it comes to shaving I don't care how it works, it works for me!
The more inquisitive part of me still want to know more what's really going on tho...

I'll throw this into the mix in the hope better minds than mine can make something out of it.

On more than one occasion I have noticed the following: I assess the edge coming off my final finisher (Jnat - usually with slurry but sometimes without) immediately using the old "arm hair wafting" thing. Then I go and strop the edge and waft the arm hairs again. There is a noticeable improvement after stropping. Very noticeable.

Stropping is doing something - it is not abrasive as such, so I don't think it is removing metal or at least not much metal - maybe at the nano level or something. I personally think it is aligning metal and maybe even bending the striations along the sides of the bevel. At the finishing level of honing those "gouges" on the bevel cannot be that deep, and perhaps a bit of leather, combined with the speed used when stropping, "bends" the ridges over to create a smoother bevel?

Dunno. Sounded good in my head.

James.

What something looks like is not really a true indicator of what it will feel like.

Until electron microscopes can grow whiskers and shave, all they can provide us with is what something looks like.

Take yrs truly for example - I look remarkably rough, but I feel real smooth.

That everyone uses a strop and that the great majority feel the benefit of it is more compelling evidence than a microphotograph.

Regards,
Neil

There is a video on Youtube that demonstrates how stropping with various pastes, including CBN, can create a perfectly shiny bevel. The photographs are taken with a microscope with, if I remember correctly, 400X. There are issues with this kind of study.

First, we shave with the edge, not the bevel. Whether the bevel has scratching or looks perfectly shiny is irrelevant to the shave. The edge cuts the whiskers, and that has already been done or not done before the bevel comes into play.

Secondly, 400X magnification is impressive, and there are things to be learned from such studies. One of those things, however, is NOT whether the shave will be effective. Even the video itself makes the point that edges that do not look particularly good under 400X shave just fine.

Third, I bought an 8X mirror to evaluate my shaves a year ago. I discovered that my really close, smooth shaves looked horrible under 8X. The solution: I went back to trusting how my shaves felt and stopped looking at the 8X side of the mirror. The goal is not a perfect shave under 8X, but a close smooth one.

Fourth, I have wanted for over a year to test a blade for a few shaves without stropping. I haven't done that. Why? Because the shaves are so darn good after 100 laps on leather, that I just couldn't stop doing it. I might still do that testing, but I really do look forward to stropping because of what it does for my shaves.

Originally Posted by ace

First, we shave with the edge, not the bevel. Whether the bevel has scratching or looks perfectly shiny is irrelevant to the shave. The edge cuts the whiskers, and that has already been done or not done before the bevel comes into play.

I don't really like that saying, sure we don't shave with the bevel but I get my bevels honed and polished by the same stones that will sharpen the edge.
So what it did to the bevel will tell me a lot about what it did to the edge.

As they say: "the edge bone's connected to the...bevel bone". Or something like that.

Scratches on the bevel reach to the edge. Sure, they don't tell you how far apart the two sides of the bevel are (ie how "wide" the edge is) but I think in this discussion we are assuming the edge is "sharp" aren't we?

So while I don't disagree that we shave with the edge, I do disagree that the bevel has nothing to do with it. It's like saying a car drives with the wheels.

James.

Originally Posted by krisbowe

Am interested to know if any memeber has any pictures of a razor edge before stropping and after under a microscope??