Thread: Stropping is King

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.