loaded strop as good as 6000 grit waterstone!

http://www.mse.iastate.edu/fileadmin...nifeShExps.pdf

What a read! This looks to be a very controlled and repeatable set of experiments by a mechanical engineering professor with some very interesting findings.

p.24 takes the cake for me, in that a 20 deg total angle (i.e. straight razor geometry) blade ground at 600 grit and then stropped with chromium oxide ends up with edge geometry and width almost identical to the same blade ground on a 6000 grit waterstone and then stropped with chromium oxide.

Which is why I use my 600 grit DMT diamond whetstone to bevel my edges, my translucent arkansas to polish the edge, and then a loaded strop to do the final polish (although lately, I've been doing 10 passes on newspaper, too!)

Lots of grist for the forum mill! Let's discuss!

If this is the same study we discussed before the conclusion was that what this guy is saying has no applicability to the real world of shaving. His conclusions as theory are not supported by people actually using straight razors. I don't believe he uses one. There are some very coarse grits out there available that in theory can be the same as a 1K hone however I don't know anybody who would try and set a bevel on a pasted strop though I have heard some rumors about a person who did.