Thread: How effective is clean fabric?

I have been spending quite some time studying the effects of various stropping materials on razor edges. A side benefit of this study is I have come up with a technique to produce extremely narrow honing bevels. 40µ is pretty common. The narrowest are in the 25µ range!

I use a Timahagane test blade for these tests. The Timahagane has a low abrasion resistance, even though it is very hard (64HRC). This helps to amplify the effects of stropping, making things easier to see. Honing was finished with a Shinden Asagi. The Kasumi finish also helped make it easier to see what is going on. The strops were held very tight. Only the weight of the razor was used for pressure.



This is the initial edge. The honing bevel is about 25µ wide.



This the same edge after 40 laps on a fairly smooth Flax Linen strop. The spots are silica inclusions in the steel. They made very handy reference points for lining things up. They were also a great reference to measure edge wear, after many tests.



A chin whisker, for scale reference. It is a little wider th ean the frame of the photo.

Most surprising was how much steel coarse cotton canvas removed from the edge. Several microns of edge width were removed after only 40 laps.

I want to thank Tony Miller for helping me with this study. Tony provided me several different fabrics to try.

Eventually, all the results will be on my web site. I will also be repeating this testing with a tool steel razor, instead of Timahagane. Various leathers are also on the docket for testing. After all these years, it is wonderful there is still so much to learn.