Quote Originally Posted by tcrideshd View Post
the best I can understand is the linen provides a good clean up on your edge, and alignment before going to the leather for the final burnish . yes it does a great job of cleaning the edge after the shave, but it still does the same thing before, oxidation starts at the microscopic level.

Tc
How right you are! I recently pulled out some blades I had freshly honed and put away after shave testing. Even though they were well cleaned, dried, and stored, the edges after a year and a half were markedly degraded. Stropping on leather did nothing. Stropping on the linen actually helped a little. Still not good enough for my tastes, but the difference was noticable