Thread: Stropping is King

...maybe the longest; but overall one of the very best threads I have ever read here. I learned a bunch.

Scott, immense thanks

Originally Posted by kevint

...maybe the longest; but overall one of the very best threads I have ever read here. I learned a bunch.

Scott, immense thanks

Yes this is a very good thread that I think everyone should read.
I just finished all the 26 pages and I didn't really think that stropping was as important as it now seems.

Btw just for the record I'm on my 22nd shave now and the edge seems to dull a little bit for every day now but I blame that on my sub-par stropping skills since its my first 22 shaves. It seems as new edges form SRD are magical! Or maybe I just have low standards.

Btw did you ever come as far as making the test a reality or did it never happen?

Long live this thread!






Anyone with a silver bullet?

I will second that, I love this thread

Has some GREAT information that I think many guys would benefit from

Originally Posted by Kees

If you want to do a HHT and do not have suitable hair yourself: ask a bag full at your local hairdresser's. Some SRP members use hairs of an old or cheap brush, some even use dog hairs.

I find my chest hair is ideal for this test... perfect length, and always at hand and easy to pluck.

Also, I wonder what a barber would think of someone who comes in asking for hair.

Originally Posted by MrLastway

Btw just for the record I'm on my 22nd shave now and the edge seems to dull a little bit for every day now but I blame that on my sub-par stropping skills since its my first 22 shaves.

This is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm still in this bracket myself.

Originally Posted by MrLastway

Btw did you ever come as far as making the test a reality or did it never happen?

Did you mean this? http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...phase-2-a.html

Originally Posted by xman

This is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm still in this bracket myself.

me too.........

Thank you all for a very good thread.
Seemed on it's way to flame-war status a couple of times but the main "antagonists" sorted that out in a gentlemanly way.

I just have to comment on the view of "science" that seems to be common.

An example:
"Just like I know there must be gravity if I'm not floating around"

Statements like this are rampant throughout this thread and most of them are as wrong as this one.
If youre not floating around youre experiencing acceleration. Accelleration and gravity is not the "same thing", and what is it "really"?

Similar statements about it being an "objective fact" that "sharpening involves removal of material" etc are all referencing a very newtonian, macro, view-of-the-world that we "objectively know" is not at all relevant at small scales.

Just a thought.

Carry on...

/h

Originally Posted by hakan

Thank you all for a very good thread.
Seemed on it's way to flame-war status a couple of times but the main "antagonists" sorted that out in a gentlemanly way.

I just have to comment on the view of "science" that seems to be common.

An example:
"Just like I know there must be gravity if I'm not floating around"

Statements like this are rampant throughout this thread and most of them are as wrong as this one.
If youre not floating around youre experiencing acceleration. Accelleration and gravity is not the "same thing", and what is it "really"?

Similar statements about it being an "objective fact" that "sharpening involves removal of material" etc are all referencing a very newtonian, macro, view-of-the-world that we "objectively know" is not at all relevant at small scales.

Just a thought.

Carry on...

/h

Say...what?

Re-reading this thread was fun. I was taken aback by Ureelbirds comment in the beginning that suggested that stropping should/could remove an entire bevel and leave nothing but the new edge.

I need to work on that idea.

From the experience I have gained in the last two years I would say that Scott's comment about using linen in the stropping has the greatest effect on persuading me that that was (and still is) the cause of his extended honing intervals.

I can now sharpen a blade at any time using linen alone. I think the complexities and frustrations of this thread are firmly routed in the fact that we were all focused on the wrong part of the strop.

I agree with everyone else this is one of the best threads I have read through with some really good information in it. I have a lot of things I want to try from this thread to improve my stropping.

On a side note did anyone else find it slightly amusing that the person advocating stropping as king is a guy with a handle of honedright and I thank him for passing along his knowledge.