Thread: What does stropping really do?

I honed a razor last night, when I was done the bevel as seen through my $12 microscope
was almost black, just a few faint lines were visible, just as expected.

After I stropped on a poly stop loaded with green compound then leather I happened to look
again, to my surprise the bevel looked like it had just come off about a 6k grit stone.

I always thought that stropping polished beyond what a stone could do and that was the reason
the razor would get sharper, doesn't seem to be the case here. My curiosity up I honed again and started checking each strop I had to see what effect it had on the bevel.
I tried poly with green compound, linen with dovo white, cotton with dovo white, linen with
diamond spray, a whipped dog leather strop, and a shell leather strop, they all left scratch marks
on the bevel, some more than others but all left marks. The one that surprised me the most was the shell, it left far more marks than the whipped dog leather, does that mean it is doing more sharpening or less?

Can somebody explain to me why the edge appears less refined but gets sharper when I strop it?

Stropping does not sharpen, in that it does not remove steel--strictly speaking, but it does align the edge. If you have small burrs left over from honing, those burrs can either get aligned with the edge or they can break off--thus breaking off steel.

If your bevels and edges appear more scratched or chipped after stropping, then it can be due to a dirty strop, the wrong compound, or really bad technique.

How "loaded" was your compound? There should not be much on the strop.

From where did you get the green compound? Not everything that is green is sufficiently homogenous and fine to be useable for razors.

You have to distinguish between a plain strop and one with grit on it. With grit you will sharpening depending on what you have on it.

A plain strop, we say it dresses the edge. Just improves it a tad but not really sharpening.

Cows & horses eat grass so yes there will be abrasive silicates in leather strops.

Would be interesting to try porpoise leather

You will also notice the scratches more because they are in the opposite direction of your honing unless you strop toe leading. They should not be deep tho or you have contaminants on your strop.

Poly can be quite abrasive depending on the poly. Think Scotchbrite.

As Utopian said not all green compounds are suitable for razors.

Another thing that can determine how deep the strop scratches are is how much pressure you use.

I don't use the average abrasive compunds as I'm yet to find one that doesn't degrade the polish of my finishers. Even the Dovo White on linen can change an edge.

Finishing on a 12 k however the edge can be improved by pastes.

Not really sure what you are asking, because I can’t see what you see.

If you are comparing paste, do so with the same substrate. Your results will depend on the grit, size, abrasiveness of the paste, the finish on the bevel the substrate and pressure.

If you are seeing deep stria, after stropping on paste, that is common. The paste is polishing the finer stria and revealing deep stria, that was never honed away by the finer stones.

What are you honing on, and what is the make of the razor?

BTW “Green Polishing Compound” is not shave quality Chrome Oxide and will leave a chipped, harsh edge.


Photos would help.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Cows & horses eat grass so yes there will be abrasive silicates in leather strops.

Would be interesting to try porpoise leather

No good.
There are abrasive silicates in the ocean too.

Would be more interesting to try extraterrestrial alien leather

Thanks guys, I learned a lesson today, clean your strop once in a while. After wiping them down I m getting nearly no stria from the leather strops.

It surprised me that strai from the compound (the good stuff from SRD) was as course as it appears.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that it looks to be a larger grit than my stone
Yet improves the edge.

I always keep my strops covered to help keep them clean. I also wipe my strops with my hand prior to use in order to clear off anything that may have accumulated on it. Also, I occasionally wipe my strops with a slightly damp wash cloth in order to clean them and to add moisture to them. Finally, I always strop on newspaper after honing in order to avoid transferring any grit from the hones to the strop.

I just leave my strop/strops hanging in a hallway and don't do anything to them but strop. I do palm rub every so many months if it occurs to me. I'm not recommending that, just stating the facts. An old barber told me back in the '80s that the strop "straightens the edge." Same thing Utopian said, "aligns the edge," and tbs said, dresses the edge. I hit the lined first then the leather. This is what I always saw the old barbers do years ago, and I figure they wouldn't have kept doing it if it had no purpose. I know there is controversy over whether to use linen or not, but for me it is my default method.

I've always tried to get the maximum out of the hones, so I rarely use paste or chrom-ox. This is not that those things aren't good adjuncts to the hones, but out of a sense of trying to achieve better results through whatever my honing skills are. Also, if I'm finish honing on a yellow green Escher, or a Suehiro 20k, going from those expensive hones to fifty cents worth of green powder just doesn't make sense to me. A lot of guys on this board like to experiment with all these things, and that is one of the great things about it. Even an old dog like me might learn something new if I keep an open mind.

An explanation in pictures, first is after a shave, 2nd is after linen and leather. These pics are the cutting edge magnified 3000 times if i remember correctly.