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Paddle strops

I might be stating the obvious here, but I discovered that my paddle strop works much better when I strop with a layer of tape when the razor was honed this way. I was very surprised to note the difference. I suppose that a hanging strop will bend around the bevel thus obtaining the same effect without the layer of tape.

Has anyone else found this?
 
Well, if it works for you rock on.

But a piece of tape or two will not make any difference on a linen or leather strop.

Think about this, if you hone a razor with tape, on film, then add a piece of copy paper under the same film, (1um) the thickness of a single piece of wet copy paper will compress enough to visibly hone/polish about 1/3 of the bevel from the edge back with just a handful of laps 1-5. Inking the bevel will quickly demonstrate this.

If you continue to hone on paper, it will polish the whole bevel.

So, if a single piece of paper will compress enough to hone the leading edge of a bevel. A linen or leather paddle strop will compress much more, a hanging strop even more. It is why stropping slightly convexes a bevel.
 
I can't see using tape on a paddle strop. If you strop by holding the shank from side to side with the thumb biassed towards the edge, you can create pressure there as needed analogous to using tape, or not. Such pressure, particularly with a leather side lined with felt on a paddle, works well from my experience, leading to very limited lap counts.
 
Is your paddle strop clean or pasted?
I have both pasted and non pasted paddle strops. So I am now of the opinion that stropping with a taped spine is the way to go with a paddle, provided of course that the razor was honed this way.

I am purchasing a hanging strop from Tony Miller and I have asked him if he can make me a paddle too.
 
I have been using a Supex 77 paddle strop for the last few years, which has a unique design feature in so far as that the strop plattens (beds) are supported at their ends (like a bridge span) and can be exchanged.

This gives the plattens some flexibility and the user can choose between different leather versions.

It was briefly discussed in March 2022 on this site and the thread includes some images that explain: Supex 77 Interchangeable Paddle Strop - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/supex-77-interchangeable-paddle-strop.622318/

To me, this combines the best of two worlds, but I admit that although the design has been around for quite some time it never really caught on…


B.
 
With all of the leathers I've worked with, when glued to wood for paddle strops, the hide compresses with normal stropping technique and it absorbs the added angle created by honing on tape . Approximately - Super 88 is 8-8.5 mil, Super 33 is 7-7.5 mil, Temflex 1700 is 7 mil. that's .007 ".

Without any effort at all the horsehide test strip I have here defects over 2x that dimension. I've measured this numerous times because the stropping with tape on a blade honed with tape thing comes up periodically. I get the questions via email often. I've also observed bevels stropped on these surfaces under high magnification and the 'hit' from the leather on bevel is seen going out to and at the apex. Shaving with those edges further proofs the idea for me.

I can see where, for example - if someone uses too light of a touch on the hide, then adding tape to the spine could possibly position the apex in a way where it was getting better treatment. Perhaps. I think a lot would depend on actual edge geometry. But in a typical stropping scenario here, with paddle strops, I have not needed to use tape to strop a blade honed on tape. In any other given situations though, there might possibly be other variables at play I suppose.
Try stuff, if you like what happens, keep doing it. I just strop on paddles normally but whatever's clever.
 
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