Thread: Stropping after honing!!

After honing, I typically do 40-60 strokes on the leather, test shave and then another 40-60 on the leather again.

Have fun

Well thank you, seems like most do a lot more stropping after honing,Lynn got a different aproach but im sure his honing exceeds mine for sure.Gssixgun i like your aproach as well, but "at this point in time" i dont have a 30x loupe or microscope, been wanting one for a while. After 25 years of sharpening woodworking tools i was under the impression that i had all the tools required to do this except for a fininshing hone guess i was wrong after all...........

Sixty laps on horsehide always do it for me.HOG

20-30x on plain leather for the first shave to ensure it's right on the money & if it is, follow up with 100x every time. Been chasing edges lately, so I want to feel what is going on before smoothing things out on the leather.

Gentlemen, after honing I do 100 strokes on leather — well, I like stropping — and then the shave test.

I couple times I have forgotten to strop after stones... Even though my asagi is very smooth and can be shaved off of, the 60 laps on leather just smooths that out to a fantasic shave lol.

like most of the previous posters, I do a bit more after honing.
About 60 on linen and 75 on leather seems to do the trick nowadays.

Stropping after honing depends on the hones you used and how high you went on fineness. If I go 1k, norton 4/8, coticule, jnat, Escher I will only make about 30 laps on leather because the edge is so fine. If I went 8k to coticule then I would make 60linen/60leather. It really depends on how fine you're finishing is.

I finally tried shaving right off my Oozuku today after a touchup--not stropping at all. Smooth, sharp & very little difference compared to stropping!