Thread: I wish I wouldn't have traded for a microscope :-]

To make a long story short I traded a razor for a microscope today. It has raised a few issues.

The one for this area is that it seems that I am stropping the thick area of the bevel and not the edge or a majority of the bevel any way. I have read "Don't put to much pressure on the blade and hold the strop tight."

Am I putting to much pressure on the spine and raising the edge?

I wish that my equipment could take pictures.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Tim

The strop is pulled taut. The tang of the razor, the way I hold it, is between the tip of my fore finger and the tip of my thumb with the middle, ring and little finger supporting the scales. Very important IMO. Snug pins in the pivot of the scales are critical too. Difficult to strop propely with loose scales.

Flip the razor between the fore finger and thumb applying pressure to the spine. Enough pressure so that the spine never comes off of the strop. When the flip becomes coordinated you will be able to better control whatever pressure is applied to the edge with your fore finger and thumb.

Check out this tutorial on honing and stropping from the SRP Wiki here . It is a PDF of an excerpt from a 1961 barber manual. Practice the flip as they suggest if that might be the issue. Hard to tell from what you've described.

I leave just a little bit of looseness in the strop to get a slight deflection when I am stropping. I also use light pressure. The strop probably deflects down a quarter to a half inch? I'm not too sure as I don't pay too close attention to it. And as for how taught - well, I hold the strop firmly, but I'm not pulling with all my might.

I think it's hard to be anything but subjective in describing it, so I'm probably not doing too well...

Originally Posted by 32t

The one for this area is that it seems that I am stropping the thick area of the bevel and not the edge or a majority of the bevel any way.

Did you determine that with your microscope?

Thanks for the replies.

The scope I am using isn't a expensive one, I am looking at about 50x.

An amazing different view. I played with the llight etc. and started with a barber hone on a sample blade to see what happened. I could see the scratches and angles etc. I tend to err on the side of going to fine to not remove to much material. I played with the hones until I thought I had an edge to strop. Linen then leather and I didn't notice much difference ecept in the wide part of the V of the bevel. Not much. I then looked at a blade that had been stropped a few times. (Check out Wilson in Bocote in the custom area) The wide part of the V of the bevel is rounded and the edge looks the same as 8000 hone or the barbers.

As I mentioned i tend to err on the side of caution and what I see is "strop tight and no pressure on the edge." I am wondering if I am being to hesitant/light pressure?

Tim

Is is possible that your blade is warped slightly? I have one razor that has a slight warp and I have to use more of a swooping X stroke when I strop it. Like in this wiki entry for honing Strokes for honing a razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki but obivously with the spine leading since I am stroping not honing

I'm not sure how you determine error in stropping technique using a microscope???

+1 for Holli's post. I'm with him. My strop is never pulled completely taught, but has a slight amount of sag in it. No pressure on the razor, basically just it's own weight. I find with this combination, I get excellent stropping results. The deflection that I get as the razor passes over the strop is approximately 3 or 4/16th's.

I was taught to pull my strop taut but how taut depends on what the teacher taught you I guess .

FWIW --

Look here:

Razor stropping - Straight Razor Place Wiki

and look at the drawings at the section "Stropping Issues".

The rule seems to be:

. . . The strop may bend a little bit around the _spine_;

. . . The strop should _not_ bend around the _edge_.

Hence the standard instructions:

. . . Keep the strop tight, and use little or no pressure on the edge.

You probably know all this already.

Are you using tape when honing? Are you using tape when stropping?

Charles