Thread: Too Sharp

Originally Posted by jaswarb

I have seen Glen refer more than once to the Verhoeven paper. This should be required reading for anyone seeking the ultimate edge. Google it.

When it comes to stropping the Verhoeven paper is all but useless.. great read for honing and edge dynamics

There is another micrograph study that shows a strop re-alligning the "Fin" after a shave

There are other reads (not on straight razors) that say that stropping can convex the edge..
(all those are referring to plain leather)


Now taking all of those views anyone can see that all three cannot be true, we as straight razor users know from our faces telling us, that stropping does something but we just don't know what..

There was a time when I tested two conflicting theories on pasted stropping, as one side said too much pasted stroppng created a fragile foil like edge, and the other side said too much pasted stropping would convex the edge.. Again both of these statments cannot be true.. After months of over-stropping and shaving with the same razor my conclusion was neither was true within a usable time frame of the razor, after that IMHO it just doesn't matter ..

It is my thought that the nearest term for what a strop actually does to an edge is 'Burnish" and even that might not be the perfect word...

Funny I was going to start a thread on this exact topic with the links to all these papers et all in the stropping forum when I had time next week