Thread: Strop Width, X Pattern and Hot Dog Buns

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

No, I meant the discussion on stropping pure and simple, the discussion in this thread is about how the x pattern increases the effectiveness of said pure and simple stropping.

The reason I'm hesitant to buy into it whole heartedly is because, as we've discussed before, there may be no correlation between the direction that the scratches run relative to the edge and the actual cutting properties. Since on the microscopic level, the edge is actually dull (it is blunt, but only about .4 microns wide, so it cuts hair because a hair is around 20 microns wide) and those scratches stop just short of the very tip of the cutting bevel.

So, effectively, the strop is not touching the very edge and the scratches are just sliding along on the leather's surface, not doing much of anything.

It makes logical sense that continuing with a consistent motion should be superior, but the physical properties are at odds with our intuitive notions, so it's hard to say what is really causing the benefits you are touting.

Ok Russel. I understand your points. I would just like to see those same microphotographs, but with an edge honed and stropped per my methods (straight razor of course).

I would gladly drop my theory, hypothesis, whatever, but at the moment there is no strong evidence to contradict my ideas (if you consider that the current photos are a small sampling and probably don't take into account that there could be other ways to strop an edge more effectively). If my razor edge looked just like the ones in the current photos, I would happily concede that there is somthing else going on.


Scott

Originally Posted by honedright

If my razor edge looked just like the ones in the current photos, I would happily concede that there is somthing else going on.

The problem is that it has been shown that leather doesn't abrade the steel to any significant degree (even on the microscopic scale), the only thing that stropping does is "push" the irregularities along the edge back into a line. So while it would be very informative for all of us to have an electron microscope at our disposal, there is unlikely to be anything astoundingly different from what is in the Verhoeven study.

I mean, if there's no abrasion going on, then the edge can only be aligned so much before there is nothing left to fix about it and any method is as good as any other and there is some other cause of your edges lasting so much longer.