Thread: Strop Width, X Pattern and Hot Dog Buns

What the @#&*, you say?

Let me esplain...

There's an issue over whether or not the X pattern in stropping is really necessary. Is it just a means to hit every part of the straight razor at once, or does the X pattern have a more functional purpose?

Thus, some choose the 3" wide strop. That way they don't need to do the X pattern. Since the width of the 3" gets the whole razor with a simple back-and-forth up-and-down-the-strop stroke all at once, why bother?

But if that was all there was to stropping, why did the old time strop makers make their strops 2.25" wide?

Is it the same as the hot dog makers and the hot dog bun bakers? You know, 8 hot dogs in a pack, but only 6 buns to a bag. Why can't they just make them the same?? I know, it's just a clever ploy to get us to buy more bags of buns. Those bastards.

If the X pattern wasn't necessary, and a 3" wide strop would eliminate it's use, then why the heck didn't those old-timers just make all their strops 3" wide? Were they daft?

And, did those same guys just stop making strops, and start making hot dog buns instead? Just to piss us off...


Scott

yea and why did they make those tiny barbers hones and narrow regular hones. They are all trying to screw us eh?

Yea, more Socratic stuff huh? Damn barbers! What did they know about shaving anyway.

Well, I don't get the bun analogy at all, but that's probably because I'm Australian and we get them in bags of a dozen....

I'm going to bite the bullet here and play grasshopper.... The way I see it, striations in the bevel are running from tip toward heel like this from X pattern honing (edge on left, spine on right):

Tip
/
/
/
Heel

Unless I've completely misinterpreted X pattern stropping for the last 2 years (entirely possible, I might add ), if a strop were to impart microscopic marks on the edge, they would look like:

Tip
\
\
\
Heel

So to me it looks like X pattern stropping is an "against the grain" process.

What does this mean? I haven't thought about it enough to know yet (I'm grasshopper, remember).

But here's a thought. Stick your arm out in front of you and make a backhand tennis swing a few times, keeping your upper arm locked. What motion does your hand make through the air? For me it's an arc in pretty much the same pattern as an X pattern stopping technique. Maybe the old-timers simply knew about the natural ergonomics of a stropping motion on a long-ish piece of leather. Combine that with the fact that, as a general rule, old-timers were parsimonious old buggers, and viola! Narrow strops.

Case closed.

Now, I'm hungry. And for some reason I feel like a hot dog...

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Well, I don't get the bun analogy at all, but that's probably because I'm Australian and we get them in bags of a dozen....

I'm going to bite the bullet here and play grasshopper.... The way I see it, striations in the bevel are running from tip toward heel like this from X pattern honing (edge on left, spine on right):

Tip
/
/
/
Heel

Unless I've completely misinterpreted X pattern stropping for the last 2 years (entirely possible, I might add ), if a strop were to impart microscopic marks on the edge, they would look like:

Tip
\
\
\
Heel

So to me it looks like X pattern stropping is an "against the grain" process.

What does this mean? I haven't thought about it enough to know yet (I'm grasshopper, remember).

But here's a thought. Stick your arm out in front of you and make a backhand tennis swing a few times, keeping your upper arm locked. What motion does your hand make through the air? For me it's an arc in pretty much the same pattern as an X pattern stopping technique. Maybe the old-timers simply knew about the natural ergonomics of a stropping motion on a long-ish piece of leather. Combine that with the fact that, as a general rule, old-timers were parsimonious old buggers, and viola! Narrow strops.

Case closed.

Now, I'm hungry. And for some reason I feel like a hot dog...

James.

Eureaka!! You've got it!!! (Now what the hell did you just post?)


Scott

And there are many paddle strops only 1.5 inches wide.

What does it all mean?

Who knows? But if we consider the discussion of what stropping actually does, there should be no difference other than the fact that a thinner strop puts a bit more pressure on the edge because the ratio of weight to contact area is decreased, thereby slightly speeding up any edge aligning that needs to be done (if you consider all other variables to be constant).

Originally Posted by Jimbo

The way I see it, striations in the bevel are running from tip toward heel like this from X pattern honing (edge on left, spine on right):

Tip
/
/
/
Heel

Unless I've completely misinterpreted X pattern stropping for the last 2 years (entirely possible, I might add ), if a strop were to impart microscopic marks on the edge, they would look like:

Tip
\
\
\
Heel

So to me it looks like X pattern stropping is an "against the grain" process.

Actually James, you kinda lost me at that second part. The way I see it, the stropping (at least the way I'm stropping) goes right along with the "marks" created by X pattern honing, not against them. So we're probably stropping differently from each other.


Scott

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

But if we consider the discussion of what stropping actually does....

That is the discussion. And it appears that I think it does something different from what others think it does.

And the fact that what I'm experiencing is different from what many others (with a few exceptions) are experiencing tells me that I could be on to something that may be of value to anyone willing to try it out.


Scott

I think I see what you are saying.

If the x in stropping exactly replicates the x in honing thus the action of stropping reinforces the edge built by honing. That way your stropping by working in exactly the same direction might be, rather than just smoothing out the edge, actually restoring the shape imparted to it by the stone so by stropping correctly you can greatly extend the time between trips to the hone.

Seems simple to me

Of course I refined my stropping technique by watching your youtube video about a hundred times, that might have something to do with why I get the sense that my razors, like yours, see the hones much more seldom than is average. Though I don't think I have reached your level just yet.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

I think I see what you are saying.

If the x in stropping exactly replicates the x in honing thus the action of stropping reinforces the edge built by honing. That way your stropping by working in exactly the same direction might be, rather than just smoothing out the edge, actually restoring the shape imparted to it by the stone so by stropping correctly you can greatly extend the time between trips to the hone.

Seems simple to me

Of course I refined my stropping technique by watching your youtube video about a hundred times, that might have something to do with why I get the sense that my razors, like yours, see the hones much more seldom than is average. Though I don't think I have reached your level just yet.

Yes Tim, I think you are following my point.


Scott