Printable View
This may be a really dumb question....but here goes.
Does anyone use a different number of stropping strokes for the omote versus the ura, as is the case when honing? I've stropped mine with equal strokes on each side as well as using more on the flat side versus the curved side. I notice no difference, but thought I would see if anyone else has any insights.
Bill it's not dumb. I myself asked the same question. I was told to strop like I would a western razor. I didn't notice any difference with both Iwasaki and Livi.
When I first started with them I wondered the same as you.
You just strop the same as a western razor.
Sharpening my first japanese razor for the the first time, I realized that the ankle is not a symmetrical one. I sharpened it using a 3-5 times omote and once ura side rhythm.
I donīt keep this relation during stropping, but I pull the strope a little harder at omote side, keeping it almost flat an I hold it much looser, stropping the ura side, resulting in a bended, curved leather strop.
I donīt think finally that is is of high importance, but theoretically it fits to the sharpening. At least I do feel good results. Maybe it would be a good point to compare with regular stropping, but I havnīt done it. For me its an adapted stropping technique, considering the different ankle shape. It may not be necessary, nor may it lead to better a result, but I strop my japanese razor this way.
The idea of stropping is to aline micro metal parts of the edge to the edge. And if the ankles are not symmetrical in my opinion, the stropping must adapt. If you treat both sides equally, then you aline the "micro parts" of the omote side to much in the direction of the ura. But since we are talking of very very small parts, it might not be relevant finally.
Please excuse wrong technical expressions, if there are, Iīm not a native english speaker.
I never even thought about that , just stropped away. The problem or me was the face has a sharp ridge an scratched the strop so make sure you do not have that problem
Dullblade,
I think everyone is in agreement that a honing technique that is a ratio of multiple strokes on the omote vs the ura. In fact, many employ a ratio of as much as 7-10 strokes to one. That is what made me think about stropping ratios in the first place. If I think about it theoretically, it makes sense to me that the omote should be stropped more than the ura. It sounds like you are accomplishing much the same thing by varying tension.
In actual practice, I have been stropping normally and just take extra care to be sure that I am keeping both sides flat on the strop. I suspect that once the bevel is fully polished it probably doesn't make too much difference if the ura side gets what amounts to some extra strokes.
Thanks for you post. It seems that we are on the same page as far as the theoretical vs practical aspects of stropping these very interesting razors is concerned.