Thread: Stropping one direction at a time

I started stopping in one direction because I was trying to get each stroke sound consistent. It was harder to do when flipping and going in both directions. But I've been practicing and I do it the traditional way now.

I did nick my strop quite a few times when lifting the blade off.

Originally Posted by jcd

I started stopping in one direction because I was trying to get each stroke sound consistent. It was harder to do when flipping and going in both directions.

Actually, as early experimentation to get the feel of things, I think that is quite a decent idea. I did that a few times myself. I was having trouble keeping the razor flat (tended to tip the toe end up in one direction and tip it down in the other). Working each direction individually helped me cure that.

With most things I would agree that you find your own way however with stropping I have to say there is only one way to do it and thats the classic way. In the end if you do it your way there is more of a chance you will roll the edge or hit the edge on the strop damaging the razor and the strop. Like with anything else bad habits are harder to unlearn.

In vast mahogany paneled rooms in stately, vine covered stone social clubs, well dressed elderly gentlemen sit on leather wing chairs near the walk-in fireplace sipping port as they argue with authoritarian bombast about the same things every saturday. One of the perennial battles is over the purpose and proper technique of stropping a straight razor. There is only one correct answer.

It will be helpful to understand the purpose and mechanics of stropping a razor before you design and develop your stropping technique. Stropping on canvas will remove material from the blade as will leather that has been "pasted" or treated with any abrasive compound (http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...-tutorial.html). The amount of steel these will remove is a function of the abrasive qualities of the canvas or the compound with which the leather has been treated. As JoshEarl very clearly demonstrated in the thread to which I linked above, you can treat a strop with a variety of abrasives, such as the 0.5 micron chromium oxide. 0.5 micron refers to the physical size of the grit in the compound. The compound can beany number of abrasives from natural crystals such as diamond or garnet to assorted carbides and oxides. The hardness of the comound is what determines what and for how long the abrasive will cut. The grit size determines how coarse the abrasive and is inversely proportional to the mesh size which is how we commonly grade abrasive products such as sandpaper. 220 sandpaper has a particle size approximately 67 microns while 0.5 micron chromium oxide makes the strop approximately equal to what would be 30,000 sandpaper. Here are some particle to mesh correlations: Mesh So you can make some very abrasive canvas or leather strops. They could be coarse enough to continue the honing process or fine enough to buff and polish out scratches. But for this discussion, let's assume you are stropping on plain leather.

Stropping on plain leather does not remove any material from the blade.Stropping accomplishes two (2) thngs. Those things are the same whether you are stropping a razor, a kitchen knife, carving tools or a plane iron:

1. Stropping will remove a burr (also known as a wire edge) left after sharpening on a stone. The strop does not abrade the burr away but will effectively "flick" or snap the burr off. For larger, tougher edges such as hand chisels, a wire edge can be removed by jamming the edge into a bit of wood. Obviously you don't want to do that with a straight razor so we use a strop. It is important to strop both sides of the edge with alternating passes so the burr can be removed as opposed to simply rolled onto one side and left attached.
2. Stropping will align the fine fibrous edge of the blade exactly the same as a sharpening steel for kitchen cutlery How to Use a Sharpening or Honing Steel The edge is malleable and will be rolled to one side if you don't strop uniformly on each side with alternating strokes. I am pretty serious about my kives and tools. Here is my kitchen cutlery: http://straightrazorpalace.com/what-...n-cutlery.html Every time I pick up a knife I take it to the steel. That is the same way it should be with your stropping. Every time I use a razor I take it to the strop for 40-60 laps. One lap = up (away from me) right side to the leather, down (toward me) left side to.

I hope some of this makes sense and is helpful.

Brad

I think you need to turn over the razor per each stroke, in order to (re)align the edge effectively.
Lifting the razor entirely off the strop holds a big risk for actually misaligning the edge, because it is easily done to lift the spine first.

There is a correct way to learn how to strop, that is very likely to pay off hugely once you master it. As much as I personally like to reinvent the wheel, to do so will never be a short cut to success.
If you want to experiment with alternative ways to strop, it's best to learn it the traditional way first.

Bart.