Thread: My stropping

Yea, I'm not describing the orientation of the blade. It must be flat on the strop, completely flat, perfectly flat. I run the blade down the strop, spine leading just like every one else. But I noticed sometimes one edge wouldn't draw and one edge would. Upon closer observation I wasn't holding the edge perpendicular to the strop I was angling it a little in the direction which was failing to draw. If the strop were the 12:00 and 6:00 orientation of a clock the blade would be pointed at 3:00 and 9:00 oclock, this is the tip and the heal I'm referring to (and the edge pointing at 1200 and 6:00 precisely as I stropped). What I discovered was that if the blade is held so it runs down the strop at any angle, and not perpendicular, say pointed at 2:30 and 8:30 it would not drag properly. I consider the strop running North/South and the blade running East/West (tip and heal pointing East/West) then the blade is at 90 degrees to the strop. Well thats the way I think of it. I'm not referring to the orientation of the blade, it must be flat. I'm referring to the angle of the edge as it moves down the strop in relation to the length of the strop. In the picture below the ------- represents the strop and the ! represent the blade running down the strop correctly, at the end the slashes are off angled to the strop, the edge is now being stropped incorrectly and will fail to draw as well as at a 90 degree angle (the exclamation points). The slashes represent sloppy stropping. But this is minor compared to the importance of correct pressure, some people actually strop at a 45 degree angle (represented by the /) with good results. They do this to get all the blade edge on the strop at once.

-----!---!---!---!---!----!-----!---/----/----/-------/