Thread: Canvas "heats" the edge: Fact or Fiction?

i was thinking that earlier... i just ran it under hot water to heat it (if it needed it or not).

With regards to the bit about the amount of friction affecting the stropping, I'm not sure it plays a role. It seems to me that leather is effective as a final stropping material because it is smooth, regardless of how much friction there is.

While I have only used one leather strop, I am basing this statement on what others have said with respect to the amount of draw their strop has compared to how a blade shaves off their strop. It seems that, for some people, more draw results in a better shave, but this is not the case for everyone. Here I add in my own experiences. With my own strop, if a razor has little to no draw, it will likely give a poor shave. But, if I take that same razor back to the hones and return to the strop with a keener edge, I find more draw and get a better shave.

Combining those experiences of mine with what others have said, I reached the conclusion that, while the amount of draw on a particular strop may tell you something about how a razor will shave, the change in draw (and therefore friction) is a result of the blade's sharpness rather than an indicator of what the strop is doing to the blade.

Beyond that, I can't really comment on the canvas bit, since I have never used canvas to strop.

I voted BS on this one. Its documented sparsly and I've mentioned it a few times but canvas and linen are used to rough up the edge when it becomes too smooth from stroping to effectively catch whiskers. As hard as that is to believe, that is what its doing.

I think it probably warms the blade a little too but I would think that stropping on leather warms the blade much more (because of the increased friction). I don't know if warming has any effect though.

Perhaps we just got confused at some point between what a strop does and what linen/canvas does.