Thread: Does rapid stropping really heat the razor?

I don't believe that to be the case, either, or the razor itself would get warm enough that you could feel it.

In order for the edge to lose temper, it would probably have to (on carbon steel razors) get to 300 degrees. Even at that, it would still be hard. All the time it's backed by cold metal and it's against a cold strop. If there as a serious amount of heat at the end, you would see a bevel that had straw temper on it somewhere, which starts to occur around 450 degrees.

What probably really happens (based on the pop-mechanics pictures from the 30s) is that whatever is loose is ripped off, and there is probably some level of adhesive wear that follows that and rounds the edge a tiny bit, even if the strop is fairly hard (with minimal rounding) or soft (more rounding).

Wear - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This stuff gets talked about in woodworking all the time, because the wear is much more pronounced and for what it's worth, I haven't seen any decline in the amount of arguing going on there in the last 5 years, either. (how much wear is adhesive, and how much is abrasive, how much friction is caused in hand tool use, ...).

Originally Posted by epd

I have never heard of a wheel strop, can you post a picture?

Eric.

Will do in a couple days for another post, or look up Tormek sharpening system.

If fast stropping worked, i would use it it to carterize the wounds as I shaved...

Give me a minute, I have strops that need me to hack them up trying to speed - strop.

During moments of lapsed logic, I have stropped pretty fast and taken fairly long strokes. I can tell you that on the webbing, there was some definite heat generated (I placed the spine of the razor against my wrist and it was warmer than when I started). That said, it was not warmer than it is when I place it under a stream of hot water in the sink.

Is this heat generated significant? I have no response to that one

They make leather belts for grinders...I would guess you could get steel glowing on one of those. If I am correct....Deductive reasoning would suggest that if you can get a lot of heat with these, you could get a little heat with non-powered methods.

Edit to add...I have not used leather, but I have used bare felt wheel and I can promise you that it does generate heat.

Regarding the razor's edge: it doesn't take much to remodel the very thin, honed edge of a straight razor.

Regarding the heat: my thinking is that a little warmth on the strop after rubbing it down or stropping awhile is just an indication that a nap is being raised, which is a good thing. So maybe it's okay to associate good stropping with a little heat being generated - but I don't think that the warmth on the strop is enough to produce any practical effect

Regarding the heat: in theory yes, but in practice I doubt that you can strop hard enough that is would be measurably affect anything. Temper is affected near 170 degrees celcius. It won't be a problem.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Regarding the heat: in theory yes, but in practice I doubt that you can strop hard enough that is would be measurably affect anything. Temper is affected near 170 degrees celcius. It won't be a problem.

Taking it a step further ..... it just occurred to me that is the blade reached that temperature it would probably burn the strop .

I tried...

Disrupted time-space, smoking razor and strop vanished into a worm hole and I never got a chance to shave with it.

You must have hit that 88 mph threshold