Thread: Linen "Leveling Effect"

There's lots of speculation going on as to what stropping exactly does. Prof Verhoeven did lots of experiments but could not find any noticeable effect of stropping. That does not mean it does nothing to the edge as the techniques used to search for a difference may not have been sufficiently sophisticated. I think it removes some very little burrs. Straight off the hones a razor's edge is less keen than after stropping. I have noticed this so often that I am convinced stropping does something. OTOH after four or five shaves and stropping on leather and linen only between shaves I start to notice some pulling. So for me is stropping without an abrasive substance is not enough to keep an edge going. Since I started using a paddle strop pasted with CBN my hones see very little use.