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.