Thread: Strop Speed Heat

If a razor is stropped too fast- can the friction-generated heat alter temper of the cutting edge? When I first went to Barber Shops, barbers were still using real straight razors. They were always in a hurry while stropping. After only a few whick-whacks on the strops, the blades were non-pulling sharp for shaving around the ears and on the neck . I did see some men buy face shaves also. More stropping happened then. Barbers' hands are fast. Production is business. I read somewhere that the tip of a phonograph needle gets very very hot while tracking in record grooves. That is why good needle tips are diamonds?...I am unsure that barbers never ruined their razors by overly fast stropping, but we strop for longer times for HHT and possibly OCD as well. Maybe some blade metals are affected by too much heat at that microscopic area where cutting edge meets leather/linen. Detail work for an IR Scanner perhaps...

I would find it hard to believe that any manual process could heat the blade edge enough to soften the metal. I'm no metallurgist, but I believe the temperature has to be at least a couple hundred degrees to begin to affect temper.

I'd second what Jimmy Ray said.

Are you smelling smoke when you strop?

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Are you smelling smoke when you strop?

+1. unless you have burn marks on your strop, it isn't a problem.
Tempering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
for most steels, tempering happens between 3-500F

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Are you smelling smoke when you strop?

Only if I have left something on the stove and then ran off for a "quick shave"....

AFDavis and I did a stropping speed experiment quite a while ago now. One of the things I was interested in was whether friction heat may have been beneficial to the stropping process.

One of the things that came out of it was that fast stropping is not going to generate serious amounts of heat - no more than say rubbing your palm rapidly over the strop. Generally, we found that faster stropping really requires a lighter touch as well, which again reduces, to a certain degree, the friction heat developed.

In light of what the others have said about temperatures required for tempering, I'd say with a lot of confidence that you are in no danger of ruining your blade (temper-wise) through stropping.

James.

No smoke here. From the 200X photos think nano. The blade is moving across a surface generating friction. Heat stays and builds up on the edge. A phonograph needle is in the same fix. Moving surface heat stays at the needle tip. Mostly. I looked for quantiative data and could not find any. Data are there somewhere. I did run across theory of why ice skates seem slippery on ice. Physicists argue about pressure/friction causing melting (nano melting?..) under the skate blade. They are arguing still over this. ( And I am getting onto thin ice with this thread). 300 degrees F is not unrealistic at such a small area when going at a brisk pace on the strop. When we were kids we rubbed ebony beans on the sidewalk and then touched the skin of some victim. It left blisters! Sizzling heat! Mean Baby Boomers! Ebony bean seeds are many times the area of the shaving edge of our razors. Think about it. How hot does it get at that shaving edge? Scary ain't it? Think nano. Just maybe this is why stropping works. In addition to micro friction, some extreme localized heat could do some molecule arranging in the Angstrom zone as well. Surely someone has a laboratory grade IR Scanner and a cryro lab to check this out. I can see the glow at the edge with each pass. "Snicker-Snack" with emphasis on the "Snicker" for now.

I think, considering people have been stropping for how many years and barbers strop at break neck speed and their razors seem to be no worse for wear this question has been long answered.

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Are you smelling smoke when you strop?

LOL!!!