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.

Originally Posted by mdarnton

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.

I think this may be the culprit, especially if you are seeing an obvious new scratch pattern. I finish on a very fine stone & sometimes I see a random scratch from the strop but not to the degree you describe.

Have you checked after the CrO also ? Strop scratches will also run in the opposite direction to stone scratches. Just something else to check.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Have you checked after the CrO also ? Strop scratches will also run in the opposite direction to stone scratches. Just something else to check.

I have chromed on glass, just to avoid contamination, to the point where there are no scratches at all, and then stropped and watched the scratches form. As I said, on fresh newspaper, too.

How do these scratches affect the edge ? Any visible damage ? Shave test bad ?
Leather does contain silicates so scratches would be obvious on a highly polished bevel but hard for us to get an idea of what you're seeing without microscope pics.