Thread: strop scratches

OK, I have enough data now to know I'm not crazy. Here's what's happening:

I'm honing to 12,000, then maybe chromium oxide or not. At any rate the level of scratching on the blade as seen under a microscope has reached a pretty good point, varying on how far I go with the chrome (on glass, by the way). With the chrome on glass, it can reach the point of no scratches at all

Then I strop.

I have two different strops, my belt, some leather strapping not intended for stropping, some misc leather on wood, and newspaper. The razors are a selection, about a dozen of them, all different.

I'm cleaning everything well between steps, including a very complete job when I check with the scope.

No matter what I do, the strops are scratching the blades. After stropping, no matter which blade, no matter which stropping material, the scratch level is back to about what I get directly off an 8000 stone.

I've tried everything, all combinations, and that's what happens, every single time.

Comments? I can't be the only person who ever saw this.

Maybe you need a new clean uncontaminated leather that is intended to be used to strop razors. You don't mention how the razors shave your face

off the existing strops.

Jerry
____

Three of the leather strops are new, real commercial strops. One of them I sanded down, just to see if there was something caught in it. Of the bunch, I think that my belt does the cleanest job.

The shave is fine. What I'm wondering is if all of this stuff with fancy and expensive hones above an old fashioned barber's hone (which worked fine for a century) is just a waste of time and money, and an illusion, if we're going to ruin it with a strop.

Ive used a strop for 48 years, never owned a microscope.

I'm thinking people could save themselves some stone money if they did have one and had used it.

Originally Posted by bobthbarbr

Ive used a strop for 48 years, never owned a microscope.

You don't know what you're missing !

Be sure that your strops are clean and uncontaminated by grit. I wipe my blade and hand rub my strop before each use, and if anything begins to feel off while stropping. Tactile and audio feedback while stropping is important. Do your strops feel smooth while stropping, no gritty feel with a nice even draw and the same sound in both directions? Do you protect your strops from dust (swarf, stone grit, etc.) and paste cross contamination?

I have not used a microscope to examin my razor edges so I do not know whether good stropping creates a scratch pattern when blades are honed above 8K.

They can't be any cleaner than brand new, and then cleaned again, just in case, right? And that's why I included various sheets of newspaper, since that seems to be an unquestioned standard around here.

From what I'm reading, I'm gathering that people have been advocating sharpening methods that they've never really examined to see what's going on, on the theory that throwing more money at a problem solves it better? I've noticed something interesting about chromium oxide, too, but I'm not even going to get into that.

Have you tried shaving directly off the hone and comparing it to the shave after stropping?

As you might of read more then a few times if you have been reading about honing the only true test that matters is the shave test. This is normally referenced when someone can't do the hht.

But it also applies here. Studying scratch patterns and the presence of after stropping real doesn't matter to most guys here. Guys on here are looking for the best shave they can get. Guys that are advocating high grit stones and paste have shaved off of 4k, 8k, 10k, 12k, 16k, 30k, 50k and higher grits. They then advocate what gave them the best shave over multiple use, blades and other factors.

If you feel your optimum high grit is 8k great you know what you need and you can save your self money.

Me I like something in the 12 k range at the moment but have used a 4 k and 8k edge comfortably before. I can honestly tell you on my face I can tell the difference. Thats all the examining I need.

I have also used crox and ferox while I can also feel that these edges are sharper on the face I don't recommend them as I feel they leave a harsh edge and a relatively weak edge.