Thread: Old-school stropping vs modern stropping.

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

Originally Posted by papaface29

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

Most metals have a certain degree of "memory." Once they are heated up enough to forge, they will always have a certain tendency to return to the shape they were forged into, unless they are distorted enough to change the "memory" shape.

Very soft metals like gold and lead, have less memory, and require much less bending to change the remembered shape.

Steel has more memory. How much, depends on the particular type of steel, and the particular way it was forged and tempered.

The best example I can give you would be my mother's glasses. Now, we're not talking about those crazy, look how you can bend and twist these things, "flexon" frames. She had a pair of fairly plain glasses which happened to be made from "spring steel" according to the tag that came with them.

She was bucked off a horse and hit a wall face first. Needless to say, in addition to looking like she'd been beat up for several weeks, her glasses were bent up beyond all usefulness. She threw them in a drawer and forgot about them.

3 months later, she was digging through the same drawer, and found her glasses. They were still somewhat bent, but only at the bridge. The temples had straightened themselves back out completely, and the bridge had straightened half way out.


The same thing happens to your razor. The edge does get micro chips while you shave, but the main thing that causes it to dull is that the edge of the blade is incredibly thin, and it get's bent out of shape.

Stropping helps bent that edge back into shape, but so does letting your razor sit for a few days without being used. So, the theory is that resting your blade can increase how long it will last, by giving the edge time to return to position all on it's own, instead of my forcing it back on a strop.

Originally Posted by papaface29

Does anyone have an explanation for the "resting the blade" school of thought? Guess I'm just wondering if there is any merit in it, what with the metal bending itself back up and all

This probably should not apply to you. But, if you do not strop your razor and wait a few days in between shaves you can get pretty good shaves. Most guys just use a strop.

I see the fairy tale about resting a razor is back Sick of that Bull-Chunder being banded about as gospel. Can't wait for the Thumb stopping to be vomited back into life.

Stropping post shave is a good way to clean and dry the razors edge.
A light stropping before a shave serves the same function.
When a razor starts to dull, you then strop the razor more pre shave.
When a reasonable amount of stropping fails to work you can then turn to a pasted strop etc.
When pastes don't work you can then turn to a hone to refresh.

As to when to strop, this has to be a users choice because he is the one getting the feed back from his razor. You may deicide after a shave that the razor didn't perform too well. This will determine the amount of work on the strop/hone will be required for the next shave.
Yes razors can go for many shaves without stropping if kept clean and dry. It has to be born in mind that the strop fills a multi role in razor care.

PuFF

Originally Posted by PuFFaH

I see the fairy tale about resting a razor is back Sick of that Bull-Chunder being banded about as gospel.

Let me be really clear, in case it was not clear to everyone from my posts. I'm not even coming close to claiming that the idea of resting a razor works. I was simply explaining the theory behind it. I have seen the principle in action, but spring steel frames for glasses, are a completely different beast than a razor edge.

On the other hand, I've got razor #3 on the way, and I fully intend to test the theory out for myself.

Hmmmmm one point for stropping before the shave regardless, of anything else....

Micro-oxidation, there is a huge thread on this already in the forum with pics to accompany all the info....