Thread: X-stroke or not?

Having used 2", 2.5" and 3" strops and tried a variety of strokes over the years, I can safely say that using an X stroke when stropping has far greater efficacy than not using one.

Without rehashing the other posts, the X stroke ensures a better coverage across the full length of the edge. JMHO but thats what I've found.

I use X strokes on any width strop of mine. Originally it was learned because of 2" and 2&1/2 " strops. I really did not see a reason to stop the x stroke on my 3" strops.

Gentlemen,

While, granted, I'm still new myself, I would submit the following:

When honing, you are moving the blade, heel forward, across the hone which causes striations to be formed angular from heel to toe and edge to spine (see simple diagram below).

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the entire point of stropping is to tweak the edge and smooth out roughness (though extremely microscopic) left by the hone. Not to say that we are removing metal, merely reshaping it.

If this is correct (which I understand it to be... again, noob here), wouldn't you want to have striation going the opposite way, i.e. from heel to toe and from spine edge? If so, the only way to achieve this is with an X-stroke.

Some may say that for it to be truly opposite, you would start the stroke from toe to heel, but given that the toe will have less strength than the heel since the tang lends strength to the heel, you would risk warping the blade to start from the toe.

Again, just my tuppence from a layman's standpoint...

Originally Posted by crouton976

If this is correct (which I understand it to be... again, noob here), wouldn't you want to have striation going the opposite way, i.e. from heel to toe and from spine edge? If so, the only way to achieve this is with an X-stroke.

Some may say that for it to be truly opposite, you would start the stroke from toe to heel, but given that the toe will have less strength than the heel since the tang lends strength to the heel, you would risk warping the blade to start from the toe.

Again, just my tuppence from a layman's standpoint

Striations & their direction are largely irrelevant. For a few years I experimented with stropping with the toe leading. Zero difference to results & at the light pressures used when stropping zero risk of warping a razor.
The only risk is to the strop with spike points if you get it wrong.

Well, I suppose that shoots that theory down, unless someone else has anything else saying otherwise.

Like I said, just a thought.

It's something that has been in the back of my mind, but stropping has been the most difficult aspect of straight shaving for me, which is why I opted for a 3" strop and a straight pattern.

I really get the part where if you hone directionally you should strop directionally to clean up debris. Honing is with the edge leading the way and stropping is with the spine leading the way.

Maybe sometime down the road I'll try to switch to the diagonal with the strop but as long as I keep getting a spiffy edge, I think I'm going to stick with what I'm doing, at least for the time being.

I'm still new to this but I've found that I like stropping with the heel leading and in my mind that this is accomplishing the same thing as the X stroke and I think it would be harder to roll the edge this way also.

Thoughts? Am I totally off base?

By the way, I've found that since doing this I haven't nicked my strop since.

Originally Posted by Jetmech

I'm still new to this but I've found that I like stropping with the heel leading and in my mind that this is accomplishing the same thing as the X stroke and I think it would be harder to roll the edge this way also.

Thoughts? Am I totally off base?

By the way, I've found that since doing this I haven't nicked my strop since.

Hi Jetmech,

You're not accomplishing the same thing as an X-stroke. What that accomplishes is a guarantee that every bit of the blade's width encounters every bit of the strop's width, with a fair amount of shuffling the contact points between the two surfaces. If there isn't some lateral movement of the blade during its longitudinal motion, you won't shuffle the blade's and strop's relative high and low points as they pass one another.

Your heel-first approach is a good adaptation of a blade being wider than its strop; I assume you angle the blade enough that the heel and toe are both on the leather for the whole time. But say there's a slight low spot in your strop, right in the center, that is 1/2" long and 1/2" wide. The same part of your blade will pass that same spot on each stroke and therefore gain less of the stropping effect. The mix and match of the X-stroke won't completely solve this problem, but it will give you better stropping of more of your blade.

Yeah, this is hair-splitting. But it's also long-established conventional wisdom, which develops and persists because it works.

That makes perfect sense! Dang, now I gotta relearn! My strop is actually a 3". I'm not sure exactly why I strop that way other than I thought it would make it harder to roll the edge because the edge isn't perpendicular to the line of travel.

My perfectly straight 3" razors get a straight stroke on my perfectly flat hones and perfectly flat strops.(ahem, clearing throat) All others get, at least a slight X-stroke. The smilers even have the great honor of getting a rolling X stroke- because that's how they roll.