Thread: Funny thing happened on the way to the strop

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I think that "stuff" on the fin degrades the shaving edge, noticably.

So, that could be another explanation for the dulling effect of the strop. Too much dressing on the surface is getting into and fouling the fin.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Tonight, I'll clean the strop again, and see if I can strop one and atleast maintain the edge. I'll use Tonys paddle strop tonight. His always seemed to perform better than the Jemico anyway.

Try stropping on leather with the strop supported from below and see if it makes a difference.

The black ice is an optical lighting effect that looks just like a keen sharpened razor, like in the attached pic. I don't have a pic of my blade but on mine it is close to the pic with some heavy random cut lines in it at weird intervals. When I strop on leather I get thousands of added grit line marks all over the blade and it looks like a cross hatch pattern. The cross hatch is so close together that it looks like a single pattern not a cross hatch at all. Like it was stropped with steel wool. I'll start doing some more experimentation. I replicate the same angle on the microscope each time. I can manuever it to look directly into the edge and I see more cuts reflected but after I strop I see WAY more cuts. It is exactly the same edge I see when I put a DE razor under the microscope. Smooth without grit striations. Again, just like the attached pic of a keen razor, this is accomplished without stopping on leather, only on balsa.

Good experiment, very good shave. I tried to bias the experiment a little against my hypothesis (whatever that is I'm not sure, I suppose that .5 on balsa is good for stropping?). So I took 2 razors one, I'll call Razor A does not shave well, and two I'll call Razor B, shaves pretty well already. I took razor A and stropped 20 times on .5 balsa wood. It turned to black ice and looked pretty good, not quite like the pic above again with some random deep scratch marks but overall looked smooth and black. Razor B I stropped on .5 micron paste balsa as well. Both seemed to shave pretty well, about even, which was a little surprising considering the start. I then cleaned the leather strop a 4th time and stroped 30 times with the strop supported from underneath. The black ice look started to disappear as I suspected it would, but not as much as I remembered the night before. I then stropped again 30 more passes and the black ice look began to return slightly. I stropped again 30 more passes but saw no noticible change under the microscope this time. I then shaved again and I noticed a slight increase in performance from not stropping, only slight, but an increase none the less.

I then stropped on balsa wood only.......and, NO CHANGE..darn....ok.

So I went back to the strop and stropped on leather some more....went right back to where it was before stropping on balsa. Slight improvement, but not much.

So, whats going on here?

I think the .5 paste on balsa wood rocks for honing an edge.

I think I can shave without stropping with a balsa honed razor

I think there is something wrong with the strop and will need to look at a new one, I think it may be inpregnated with .5 paste. Anyone have any ideas on a deep cleaning for the strop?

Maybe I'll keep working on the strop, it appears now to no longer be ruining the edge but its not doing much to improve the edge either. Just a little improvement over .5 pasted balsa.

I'll try Tony's strop (which may be inpregnated also) and I'll try some other cleaning ideas. I think removing the paste is helping a little.

I may look for other mediums to strop on for a while also. Maybe a very soft strop material?

Well, I decided to give it a try. Here is my new balsa hone. I cut it to fit my Handamerican Corian base. Kinda cool even ifit doesn't work.

Try cleaning your strop with Goop, the hand cleaner and using a nylon Scotchbite stripping pad being careful to move the pad only from the top to the bottom of strop. This may help to remove any embedded grit. The wipe off the Goop immediately and let it dry for several days.

You may want to burnish the strop by rubbing it with a glass bottle/jar.
This would smooth out the strop surface. I think you know the procedure for that.

I do like the idea of balsa wood but mine would be on a firm backing and use only dry abrasives.

I will bet that the "black ice" is metal filings and paste. If you are not cleaning your razor before you then go to the plain leather strop then the plain leather strop is now contaminated.

Just my two cents,

I usually clean it before stropping but I think I may have missed a few times. I've used the linen side to wipe the razor after cleaning too. I may be cross contaminating the leather from prior linen passes. I'll try the Goop. The balsa wood and .5 diamond paste sures seems to hone nicely though.

Are you suggesting that the scotchbrite should be used with one pass only or it shouldn't be used side to side?

I am familiar with burnishing and I'll give that a try as well.

Where do you get "dry" abrasives? That sounds interesting...

Is it time to look for a 12 to 15K hone instead?

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The black ice is an optical lighting effect that looks just like a keen sharpened razor, like in the attached pic. I don't have a pic of my blade but on mine it is close to the pic with some heavy random cut lines in it at weird intervals. When I strop on leather I get thousands of added grit line marks all over the blade and it looks like a cross hatch pattern. The cross hatch is so close together that it looks like a single pattern not a cross hatch at all. Like it was stropped with steel wool. I'll start doing some more experimentation. I replicate the same angle on the microscope each time. I can manuever it to look directly into the edge and I see more cuts reflected but after I strop I see WAY more cuts. It is exactly the same edge I see when I put a DE razor under the microscope. Smooth without grit striations. Again, just like the attached pic of a keen razor, this is accomplished without stopping on leather, only on balsa.

I had a response to this that didn't seem to save.

An edge can't look like black ice unless it's covered with something. The picture you showed had bad lighting. An edge cuts because of the fin ("microserrations"), which is formed where the scratch lines reach the end of the blade. In other words, without scratch lines, there's no fin. Here's a 200x microscope picture of a razor honed with a 12K stone. Notice the scratch lines?

A leather strop can't produce scratch lines if it has no paste on it. It can remove material which is covering the scratch lines. It can't dull an edge unless the strop is not taught and rounds the edge or unless something from the strop gets into the fin and gunks it up.

One thing is for sure: the strop did not produce scratch lines in an edge that didn't have them before.

DE blades have scratch lines, but they are perpendicular to the edge. They're very prominent at 60x. Try moving the light around

Before purchasing another hone get your plain leather strop cleaned up and also clean up the pasted balsa wood using the same Goop( just an idea, I do not know if that will work but the black stuff is not helping).
Get the black stuff gone.

My email is randydance@comcast.net. Send me your address and I will send you some dry 0.5 micron chrome oxide to use. My source is handamerican.com. I bought a pound of it.

On the strop do not go side to side or up and down. Just down from the top of the strop. My thinking here, and I may be wrong, is that the leather has a grain and going against it might raise a nap. So I only go in one direction when using the Scotchbrite pad, from the top of the strop to the bottom.

Scrub your linen with soap and water to try and remove as much contamination as possible. Then lay it between some towels and place a heavy weight on it to keep it flat. Remove it from the towel after 24 hours and let it dry for a couple of days.

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

I usually clean it before stropping but I think I may have missed a few times. I've used the linen side to wipe the razor after cleaning too. I may be cross contaminating the leather from prior linen passes. I'll try the Goop. The balsa wood and .5 diamond paste sures seems to hone nicely though.

Are you suggesting that the scotchbrite should be used with one pass only or it shouldn't be used side to side?

I am familiar with burnishing and I'll give that a try as well.

Where do you get "dry" abrasives? That sounds interesting...

Is it time to look for a 12 to 15K hone instead?