Thread: Can You Get By w/Strops Alone?

Hi guys,

I just did my first sharpening, with a pasted strop. It worked pretty well, and I am wondering if I even need a solid hone.

Can a guy get by with only stropping?

Scott

I bet that you can.

Hones are simply abrasives, pastes are abrasives, and can certainly keep a razor sharp. The only caveat is that, depending upon the surface that the pastes are applied to (balsa, hanging strops, other material paddle strop) it may affect bevel geometry after a while. That probably won't matter much, as long as the resulting edge is kept nice and sharp.

Originally Posted by beezaur

Hi guys,

I just did my first sharpening, with a pasted strop. It worked pretty well, and I am wondering if I even need a solid hone.

Can a guy get by with only stropping?

Scott

Let me rephrase your question ... Can a pasted stop sharpen as well as a barber hone? Yes. Can a pasted strop replace a Norton 4000/8000 water stone? No. But if you only buy new, or near new, razors and don't get into fixer-uppers you won't ever need one.

Thanks guys.

I guess my question is in regards to the long term, whether there would be any ill effects from not using a flattened hone. Some here seem pretty convinced that the flatness of a hone is very important. Obviously a piece of leather offers no guarantee of flatness.

Scott

Hmmmmmm, There is another aspect that we might be overlooking here...
A hone produces an sharp edge by the edge being pushed against the stone thus leaving a sharp "Short" edge... Using the strop you are drawing out the edge in the reverse so you are refining the sharp edge... Eventually the edge is going to become so drawn out "Long" and thin that it is going to collaspe....Or the bevel is going to become rounded from the strop, so the there is no edge left to refine.... Maybe I am trying to explain this all wrong, but sooner or later your going to need to hone the razor.... At least IMHO....

PS: watch Heavydutysgt's honing video he has a pretty good drawing of what I am trying to say

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Hmmmmmm, There is another aspect that we might be overlooking here...
A hone produces an sharp edge by the edge being pushed against the stone thus leaving a sharp "Short" edge... Using the strop you are drawing out the edge in the reverse so you are refining the sharp edge... Eventually the edge is going to become so drawn out "Long" and thin that it is going to collaspe....Or the bevel is going to become rounded from the strop, so the there is no edge left to refine.... Maybe I am trying to explain this all wrong, but sooner or later your going to need to hone the razor.... At least IMHO....

PS: watch Heavydutysgt's honing video he has a pretty good drawing of what I am trying to say

Possibly true but it will be quite a while. It is completely possible to create a edge on a stone using a stropping motion, it just isn't as fast or as efficient a use of the stone. Since the 3 micron is the same grit as the 8000 stone I'd think you could go for a long time using it as your starting point.

I've seen a coupla razors that were only given the paste-treatment in their lifetime. Pretty ugly to look at with very uneven wear and practically unsalvageable after ~30 years of use. If you use hones (followed by few strokes on the pasted strop and the plain leather strop) to keep your razors sharp and know what you're doing, your razor will last generations instead of just 1/2 of the lifetime of a normal human being...

Long story short: In the long term (and I don't even want to get into blade geometry here) you will need hones if you want your razor to last as long as possible.

I would say if your edge is in good shape you could get away a very long time with strops as long as you don't let the edge go too long before stropping. I think eventually you will need a hone but that could be years down the road. Of course if you chip your edge that changes things.

I would say NO a strop CAN NOT replace a hone and the reason is pretty simple: a strop is flexible, not only lengthwise, but has "give" across its width as well, just by the nature of leather being a pliable material. A concept that exists in woodworking or even auto body work applies here and that is this: if you have a wavy surface and you sand it, all you end up with is a SMOOTH wavy surface----the sander will do NOTHING to true it up. For that, you will need a jointer or planer---tools with a fixed. straight surface of reference. Following through to the razor comparison, if your blade is "smiling" or "frowning" or just a little wavy for some reason, stropping it won't remove that since it's removing all along the edge, where as a hone will hone down the high spots while leaving the other areas alone. Of course, the guy honing has to be aware of what he's shooting for as well. However, if you start with a straight edge and strop EVENLY and CONSISTENTLY, then I'd agree you could possibly go a while without one.

I'd say no as well.

But when you see the amount of discussion about the nuances of different hones it's quite easy to forget the importance of a good leather strop and good stropping technique. The ability to strop well is really little discussed, but it is a more important skill than being able to hone IMHO.

Watching a barber strop his blade in the old barbers shop was watching a skilled man at work.

Most in fact all leather strops seem to work wonders in smoothing out an edge. Many hones however don't quite do the job and leave the owner with the need to use something before the leather strop to make up for the deficiencies of the hone.