Thread: What does stropping do?

What does stropping really do? My experince shows that it makes the razor MUCH more comfortable to shave (I have experimented). I have been told stropping won't make the razor sharper but it sure feels dull if you don't strop. I know the book answer is that it aligns the edge. I just don't know what "aligning the edge" means.

Part of me says "You don't have to understand. Just accept that it does work." The other part of me just has to find out why.

There is much debate on that question. Here is a thread with links to scientific studies that focuses on the issue.

Quick answer is it realigns the edge of the blade on a microscopic level. Its like using a steel on a knife. Honing actually taking metal off the blade, while stropping realigns the metal on the edge. Every time your razor cuts through a hair, that part of the edge gets pushed back a very very very little bit and by the end of a shave, the blade has been pushed so much its out of aligenment. When you strop, it "pushes" the edge of the blade back to the way it was before the last shave. Hope this helps and actually makes some sense!

The strop performs several functions, and can perform some of them in different ways depending on how you use it and the materials it's made of.

The razor edge will corrode between shaves simply due to the exposure to air even before that first shave, and will corrode during and after the shave due to the exposure to water and lather. This corrosion may be microscopic, but it is there nonetheless and will show up at sufficiently high magnification levels (2000x or more). This is very minor levels of corrosion, but we're talking about an edge that is about 1/3 of a micron across, so it doesn't take much at all to affect the edge. The strop's purpose is to correct this situation before the next shave, preferably as close to the time of the shave as possible since air itself is enough to corrode the edge.

Performing this involves a variety of tasks: (a) The corrosion should be cleaned off the edge (b) the edge should be refreshed (c) the bevel repolished and (d) the edge realigned. In case it's not obvious, something capable of doing (b) will probably also do (a), but the converse is not necessarily true.

You can get along for awhile by skipping on some of these tasks. Just (d) will get you a couple or three days. Adding (a) will get you a week or so. (b) will keep the razor sharp, assuming the edge gets enough of a refresh each shave, but you really also need (c) so it keeps shaving like it did the day it came off the finishing hone or paddle.

The canvas side of the strop does (a), (b), and (c). The leather side does (a) and (d), though horsehide seems to do (d) better than latigo, and latigo seems to do (a) better than horsehide, and neither seem to be able of doing (b) to any noticeable extent.

For the longest time I ignored the canvas, since it didn't seem to really do anything when I used it. And when used on a freshly-honed razor it doesn't really seem to do much, since the steel is only lightly corroded and the edge is still sharp. The effect of the leather is immediate - it aligns the edge and the shave is immediately and dramatically improved. But this improvement in the edge is short-term and doesn't really provide any long-term benefit. The benefit from canvas is much lower, but lasts much longer, because it actually sharpens the razor. When used on a freshly-honed razor it doesn't seem to do much at all because the razor is already sharp. It may add a little polish, depending on the grit of your finishing hone, but that's about it. But if you use it enough to let it do its job, then every day it will bring razor back to that level of performance, and you'll notice it not because the razor gets sharp, but because it doesn't get dull. Using only leather I generally got 7-10 days out of an edge, but once I started using the linen as much as the leather my edges started lasting a lot longer. I'm not really sure how much longer because none of my razors have needed so much so much as a simple touch up on stone or paddle for about a year and a half now; I've got one razor with over 120 shaves on it and it's still going fine.

Originally Posted by CraigJ

Part of me says "You don't have to understand. Just accept that it does work." The other part of me just has to find out why.

I always like to know why a thing works too. If you don't you may be simply carrying out a pointless action.

I have done a little experiment.this is what i did .i used 100X to see changes in the edge .used to very nice blades. WAde&butcher meat chopper and Puma gold.
Again this was experience.
I did sharpen both blades their maximum sharpness(i could call almost overhone)

I have 4 different stropes.
i did stropping on each of them and see what happens.
Results were .in the finest edge blade you have to have the best strop to get better result.
my hardest strop almost killed the edge.
My finest strop smoothest the only one didn't damage the edge and edge get more finer.
Conclusion
if you get blade in right sharpens stropping will help the edge(right stropping )not pressure at all on the blade.If your blade has been overhoned then a good strop will improve edge tremonduosly.Bad strop with nicks etc will dull the edge.Edge is very sensitive in this case
I hope i am clear.