Thread: Warming your blade under hot water before stropping

One day I stropped my blade after cleaning it under hot water (~135 degrees F) and it felt "buttery" on the strop. Over the last three months, I have experimented with stropping cold and after ~30 seconds under hot water. There is a decidedly different sound and feel with a warm blade, and the HHT is excellent from head to toe. My hypothesis is that heating the blade makes it a bit softer, more malleable, and responsive to the burnishing effect of stropping. A reduced number of strokes seems to be just as effective as many more strokes on a cold blade. Try it and let me know what you think.

Haven't tried it that way, but there is a difference in my stropping when I warm the strop enough with the heel of the hand so that it feels hot, then strop the razor.. I always figure it warmed the oils in the strop and made them more better


don't know the reason but a warm strop seems to work best for me..

That's kind of cool - thanks for posting your observation.

Somehow (intuitively anyway), it makes sense that the blade would be more malleable. I'll take your word for it that that translates into a better stropping experience. Maybe I'll give it a shot .

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Haven't tried it that way, but there is a difference in my stropping when I warm the strop enough with the heel of the hand so that it feels hot, then strop the razor.. I always figure it warmed the oils in the strop and made them more better


don't know the reason but a warm strop seems to work best for me..

Good point. Yes, I too vigorously prep the strop with the ball of my palm to warm up the leather, then I heat my SR under running hot water before stropping. Heating up the steel seems to have a positive effect on the feel.

I have to serously doubt a blade at 130 degs is more malleable,but a warm blade and or strop has a diff feel for sure,no clue as to why.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

I have to serously doubt a blade at 130 degs is more malleable,but a warm blade and or strop has a diff feel for sure,no clue as to why.

My hypothesis is that heating the blade makes it a bit softer, more malleable, and responsive to the burnishing effect of stropping.

You may be right, but I think temperature differences at the microscopic level may have more effect than you think. Give it a try, then let me know your results.

I have to wonder, if we're talking about heating / warming the blade using friction from the strop, you'd have to get quite the speed up to actually cause any significant warming? I can see heating the blade via hot water, maybe, but hot enough to make the metal malleable?

I'm not a metallurgist, but it would be interesting to hear if in fact the level of heat generated via these methods would actually have any affect??

Hmmmmm....

Originally Posted by Gammaray

My hypothesis is that heating the blade makes it a bit softer, more malleable, and responsive to the burnishing effect of stropping.

You may be right, but I think temperature differences at the microscopic level may have more effect than you think. Give it a try, then let me know your results.

After shaving and rinsing my blade in hot water,130ish degs, it sets fore maybe 10 mins whilst I rinse my brush etc,by than the blade is still warm, maybe 90 degs,Is a diff in the feel for sure (subtle) as I said, no clue as to why.

Originally Posted by Phrank

I have to wonder, if we're talking about heating / warming the blade using friction from the strop, you'd have to get quite the speed up to actually cause any significant warming? I can see heating the blade via hot water, maybe, but hot enough to make the metal malleable?

I'm not a metallurgist, but it would be interesting to hear if in fact the level of heat generated via these methods would actually have any affect??

Hmmmmm....

We were building a stainless tank at work about two years ago, and every morning we got a different measurement than in the afternoon heat.
Keep in mind this things circumference was over 140 feet and the material was 3/4 in. thick.
Every day it would " grow" 3/8 to 1/2 in. as the day got warmer. That being said what would a temp change of 50 degrees do to a piece of steel where at its smallest point ( not counting the sharpened edge itself ) is just thousandths of an inch thick?

Just something to ponder.

The oils in the strop could become thinner giving you a better stropping effect but malleability of the steel can't be affected at that temperature... as far as I know.
Expansion & contraction is a scientific fact & steel will expand 0.12% at 180ºF. I don't know what consequence that would be to stropping.
A change in malleability tho seems to imply a change in temper & hot water simply won't do that to steel under Newtonian physics.

Maybe Quantum physics at work & you may be 100% right about the malleability but the Heisenberg principle says I can't be certain.