Thread: Stropping is King

Originally Posted by xman

That's steel on stone so sure your'e going to remove metal, but carbon steel on a horse's ass? I think I know who'd win that battle. I'd be surprised of leather removes more than trace amounts of the metal.

X

A larger trace?

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

I don't think I know that one. Where can I get it? I might even contact the manufacturer if it works.

I you copied the text correctly, I find it confusing. It says the dark side preparation is free of grit, which would seem to be pure leather. I assume the other side must have grit and doesn't require honing. Am I understanding this right?

I take it to mean there is a preparation on it that is free of grit.

PuFF

Joe, since no one of the moderators is reacting, and you have a habit of quoting several consecutive posts, I have to point to one of the new features of the forum:

Since the last update, couple of weeks ago, there is now option to quote several posts at one go. Next to the "quote" button at the bottom of the post, there is a button with this marking +". Click on that button on every post you would like to quote, and at the last one, click the "quote" button. You will have all quoted posts in one reply.

cheers,
Nenad

I was too afraid to try incase i blow myself up cheers superfly

PuFF

After digesting the gist of this thread I have been experimenting with my stropping. The result is that my razors stay keen much longer. They pass the HHT time after time, however halfway shaving my face I start to feel more irritation than I had with the same razors fresh from the hone.

So IMHO the edge does start to deteriorate after a while. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Originally Posted by Kees

After digesting the gist of this thread I have been experimenting with my stropping. The result is that my razors stay keen much longer. They pass the HHT time after time, however halfway shaving my face I start to feel more irritation than I had with the same razors fresh from the hone.

So IMHO the edge does start to deteriorate after a while. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Yeah I think I know what you mean. I think I'm finding that better stropping can help maintain the edge longer as well as moderate this 'decline'. I still kind of prefer that freshly honed sensation.

X

Originally Posted by xman

I still kind of prefer that freshly honed sensation.

I wonder if that's not a contributor to this disagreement on edge life. The razor I shaved with this morning is on its 5th shave, and though the edge is just fine I'm still feeling dissatisfied because it doesn't have that velvety feeling anymore, and I had to fight the urge to put it on the CrO2 paddle.

Hi, my name is Michael, and I'm a Chromium Oxide junkie...

This thread has finally cooled down a bit, so at the risk of stoking the flames again I'm going to suggest a theory.

It seems to me that one thing that Scott does that most of don't is to use the linen side more vigorously. If I remember correctly, Scott says he does 30 laps on the linen, starting with some pressure then easing up.

From my own experiments, the linen does a lot more than I initially thought. I noticed significant improvements in the way a razor passed the HHT just from using 30 laps on the linen. (I previously thought it just cleaned the edge and warmed it up.) I use a Tony Miller Heirloom #2.

Could this be part of Scott's success? Maybe the linen is more abrasive than we realize. Anybody else notice improvement from more use of the linen?

Just a thought,
Josh

Originally Posted by joshearl

Maybe the linen is more abrasive than we realize. Anybody else notice improvement from more use of the linen?

Scott claims his strop isn't getting gray from accumulated swarf, though it's possible he's cleaning it frequently enough not to notice. My old Bismark's linen side definitely got gray, though I cleaned it along with the leather side every few months with saddle soap so it never got too bad. My handamerican strop doesn't have a linen side, but the leather is still darkening with use, though whether from swarf or residual oil from the blade I can't say.

Since we're speaking of the linen side, I'm skeptical that the linen side really heats up the edge. At least on my old bismark, the linen side had less draw than the leather side, and less draw means there's less friction, and the heat from friction is the only thing that could heat up the edge.

Originally Posted by superfly

Joe, since no one of the moderators is reacting, and you have a habit of quoting several consecutive posts, I have to point to one of the new features of the forum:

Since the last update, couple of weeks ago, there is now option to quote several posts at one go. Next to the "quote" button at the bottom of the post, there is a button with this marking +". Click on that button on every post you would like to quote, and at the last one, click the "quote" button. You will have all quoted posts in one reply.

cheers,
Nenad

Unfortunately, that doesn't usually work for me. In threads where I participated, I don't go in again by signing into the site. I get a notification by Yahoo mail an go to the thread. I don't alwys have time to read ahead, but I do want to respond if I can contribute. If I have the time to read ahead and it seems right I do use this feature.