Thread: Does stropping keep the razor sharp?

Opinions are unnecessary. We have evidence.

WONDER PHOTOS REVEAL UNSUSPECTED FACTS ABOUT Razor Blades and Shaving

X

Thanks X, wise giver of incontestable facts! (facts are stubborn things!)

The effect of stropping this blade is easily seen. Not only has the edge been restored to original smooth shaving condition, but the size of the nick has been reduced to one third of its original area and the bottom of the nick has, moreover, been formed into a sharp cutting edge so that a hair end that happened to drop into this nick would be parted just as cleanly as those encountering the unbroken line of the cutting edge.

I guess we can close the poll now that the evidence has invalidated all erroneous opinions

[Edit: Wait a minute, X, you voted that stropping only smooths the edge, but right there the article showed that the strop also sharpens the edge - what gives? ]

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

[Edit: Wait a minute, X, you voted that stropping only smooths the edge, but right there the article showed that the strop also sharpens the edge - what gives? ]

It merely returned the edge to it's fullest length and smoothness. It didn't remove any material from the steel.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

I guess we can close the poll now that the evidence has invalidated all erroneous opinions

Just doing my duty.

X

Ah ha, that's the article I was referring to. Thanks for digging it up.

Chris L

Originally Posted by xman

It merely returned the edge to it's fullest length and smoothness. It didn't remove any material from the steel.

Yes it did

Originally Posted by Popular Science Article

It removes the rust formed on the edge

So, does stropping sharpen the razor?

Originally Posted by Popular Science Article

...proves that stropping has at least a small abrasive action and therefore sharpening effect.

I just let the evidence speak for itself

Originally Posted by Popular Science Article

The investigation also proves that no matter how carefully you clean and strop your razor after use, the vital cutting edge will rust away and the razor will become dull

So if I understand it correctly, rust dulls the razor. Stropping will remove the rust and draw out the metal in the blade so that the edge is keener and smoother than it was before, but the metal that was oxidized and removed by stropping will erode the edge in such a way as to both round the edge and create dulling variations in the previosuly straight cutting edge.

I am playing a word game again in a way, but I am still curious what people think about it, and how they describe what is happening. I see no problem in telling someone that stropping will help keep their razor sharp for many shaves as long as it is qualified that the razor will eventually need to meet a hone to restore a properly keen and straight cutting edge

hogla,

I think the evidence is incontrovertible and the photomicrographs prove it, incontrovertibly. If the strop can remove rust, it is abrasive and an abrasive is used to sharpen things; therefore, post hoc ergo propter hoc, a strop does sharpen a razor.

Cogito ergo sum and leather is as leather does, and all the rest of those neat quotes... If a strop can roll an edge, by golly it can unroll an edge

Answers don't quite match the question of "does stropping KEEP the razor sharp?" I answered yes because a stropped razor is sharper than a non-stropped razor. This would be especially true (odd phrase, I admit, kinda like someone I used to work with who constantly used the phrase "more sterile," which drove me nuts BTW) if you skipped stropping several days in a row. The non-stropped razor would not shave as well as a similar razor that was stropped because it would no longer be as sharp.

I would define "sharp" as the ability to cut. I think Webster and a few others might define it similarly but more expansively. Stropping is considered to re-align the edge and a non-aligned edge will not cut, will not shave, as well so it is not as sharp.

H*ll, it's all semantics. Just strop.

I do remember that article. It was very informative and I suggest that it should be at least linked within a sticky.

And we all know it's steriler, then it becomes sterilest when you use the right spray. This, however, is not quite the same as keeping a razor sharper or making it sharpest. That, of course, is for the linen side(r), some would think this is the domain of the leathest, but they would be incorrectly.

There are times when it is quite difficult to describe the obvious.

Just remember that the higher it flies, the much.

Originally Posted by xman

It merely returned the edge to it's fullest length and smoothness. It didn't remove any material from the steel.

But it did remove material right? That nick for example. I suppose it could have been reduced by 2/3 because the smashed in steel fibers were straightened out but I would be more inclined to believe that the edge moved towards the bottom of the nick rather then the other way around.

Originally Posted by Quick

But it did remove material right? That nick for example. I suppose it could have been reduced by 2/3 because the smashed in steel fibers were straightened out but I would be more inclined to believe that the edge moved towards the bottom of the nick rather then the other way around.

No. The only material which would be removed is the Ferric Oxide (rust). What the stropping does is stretch out or lengthen the bits that get bunched up around a nick or from shaving. The trouble with those magnifications is that they don't show how steel is pressed back by shaving. I've drawn up an exaggerated look along the bevel to help illustrate my point.

X