Thread: Dulling blades on a strop

Over the last 2 months I've been experimenting. Although I doubt anyone will find much interest in this post I thought I would discuss it anyway (its a forum afterall, right?)

I've been experimenting to discover two things:

1) What is the best way to dull an edge with a strop; and

2) What are the best corrective actions afterward

Now you might be thinking, why such a stupid experiment? I can only say that once your past the whole "whats the best way to sharpen, strop, shave" type of stuff you kinda run out of experiments pretty quick, but if you read on you might find some interesting points.

I have to start by saying I limited my tools to a standard lightweight/thin high end Dovo strop, about 2 1/2 inches wide and a barber hone. I did this mostly because I completely misinterpreted the amount of damage that occurs to an edge when it gets dulled on a strop. I might have broken out a 4K had I known better.

What I have concluded is that the best way to dull an edge with a strop is by allowing sag to occur during the stropping action. This is by far more likely to cause dulling than the application of pressure while stropping on a taut strop.

Before the experiment I used to feel that too much pressure and too much sag were probably about equal culprits in the dulling of an edge.

Next, I discoved that the best corrective action is 70-90 strokes on a barber hone.

I was really shocked at the amount of work required to get the razor back up to speed. I thought, before the experiment, that I could correct the problem with better stropping, different stropping, or even say 10-20 strokes on a barber hone.

Even with light pressure and a sagging strop I created enough edge dulling to require a lot of work on the hone, more than I had ever expected.