strops are bad ??

[cityjim]

I was just on a site and the guy had a microscope . He was showing what stropes and other hones do to the edge . Turns out he does NOT recommend stropping . As the microscope showed it fauled up the edge .

Also another similar site had pictures of numerous stones under a microscope . Just to see what the surface looked like . To my eyes the Chinese 12k and the Spiderco ultra fine were the best . Leading by a nose was the Spiderco .

All the others were alarming . Norton 4000/8000 was horrible . Several Japanese stones and so on .

Looks like I'm ordering that Spiderco in the 3" wide ultra fine model . Found it for $82.99 which is not bad I think .


cityjim

 

[Fnord5]

Do you have a link to the stropping page?

I know I would never shave with an unstropped blade unless I HAD to.

 

[professorchaos]

Agreed. I'd not shave with an unstropped blade.

 

[cityjim]

Do you have a link to the stropping page?

I know I would never shave with an unstropped blade unless I HAD to.

I'm trying to find it now . I'm at home now and found it at work . I think it was on one of the high dollar custom razor sites . And their guy is good at sharpening . I might be wrong . Might of been a woodworking site . Some prefessional sharpener using microabrasives . I'll keep looking .


cityjim

 

[Seraphim]

When I first started I had the impression that stropping was bad due to what I saw under the microscope (I started a thread about it here somewhere...). I could clearly see that the stropping beat the heck out of my newly honed edge.

What turned out to be the problem is that I was using a $19.99 Illinois strop knock-off, that indeed was worse than no stropping at all! It really was a ***.

I then got a Tony Miller Starter strop, and the quality of leather was apparent from the very beginning. Now, I can no longer see any difference in the edge before or after leather stropping(200x magnification), although it does somehow sharpen it up even further.

I would wager that perhaps the guy who did gthat experiment may well have purchased a Zeepk $19 strop off of Ebay, and thus had less than desireable results.

Stropping with a quality strop is all good. Really.

 

[cityjim]

Over at Zowada .

http://www.tzknives.com/razorhones.html

http://www.tzknives.com/stonesurfaces.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razorbevels.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razorbevels.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razoredges.html

Above is about hones . I'll keep looking for the strop article . Basically the strop nicked the hell out of the blade .

cityjim

 

[cityjim]

When I first started I had the impression that stropping was bad due to what I saw under the microscope (I started a thread about it here somewhere...). I could clearly see that the stropping beat the heck out of my newly honed edge.

What turned out to be the problem is that I was using a $19.99 Illinois strop knock-off, that indeed was worse than no stropping at all! It really was a ***.

I then got a Tony Miller Starter strop, and the quality of leather was apparent from the very beginning. Now, I can no longer see any difference in the edge before or after leather stropping(200x magnification), although it does somehow sharpen it up even further.

I would wager that perhaps the guy who did gthat experiment may well have purchased a Zeepk $19 strop off of Ebay, and thus had less than desireable results.

Stropping with a quality strop is all good. Really.

You might be right Seraphim . I'll keep looking for the article .

cityjim

 

[Thebigspendur]

So let me get this straight millions of guys have been shaving and using strops for well over one hundred years including professional barbers and all swear by it and one guy an "expert" says stropping is no good and we should believe who? If he's stropping and the edge looks terrible it seems to me he's no expert.

 

[English]

Let me help you out while you are looking for the source of the revelation.

Your expert is incorrect.

 

[gratewhitehuntr]

the proof is in the pudding

I'll subscribe to this thread and wait for your posts regarding no-strop-shaving

the only hone I'd shave off is my escher
and stropping helps that even

 

[Tim Zowada]

Over at Zowada .

http://www.tzknives.com/razorhones.html

http://www.tzknives.com/stonesurfaces.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razorbevels.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razorbevels.html

http://www.tzknives.com/razoredges.html

Above is about hones . I'll keep looking for the strop article . Basically the strop nicked the hell out of the blade .

cityjim

It's not me. I think that stropping is a very important part of the honing process.

I'm now looking at things at 1250x and can actually see the effects of stropping on a 30K edge. Proper stropping, with a good strop is always beneficial. A crummy strop, or poor technique, can booger things up in a hurry.

(Aside: There seems to be a lot of confusion about the whole double bevel/tape thing too. I'll be updating my web site to better explain things in a few days. Here's a hint, if you do things correctly, a distinct secondary bevel is not created.)

Tim Z.

 

[Tony Miller]

Tim, You had me worried for a moment! Glad to hear it was not you. I know there is a strop article from a German site that give very error filled info on strops.

One big problem on the internet is a new fellow will read one article and take it as gospel.

Anyway, gotta run. I'm buying a new Ferrari tonight as I have $234 million on the way from some guy in Africa and I just know the check will arrive any day now as I have given them all my bank info and already sent them the required $8K to process everything

Tony

 

[Luc]

I'm curious to see that article because I noticed an improvement since I started using my Dovo strop. I am now looking for a dovo extra wide strop to eliminate the X pattern

I need more experience on my small strop first!

 

[Chimensch]

I think you are referring to the Verhoeven article on knife sharpening.

He says that you can't see any sharpening effect from stropping on the SEM. However, as has been pointed out by others, the fact that you can't see it on a microscope doesn't mean that it isn't having an effect on how smooth the razor feels.

 

[JBLAZE725]

Tim, You had me worried for a moment! Glad to hear it was not you. I know there is a strop article from a German site that give very error filled info on strops.

One big problem on the internet is a new fellow will read one article and take it as gospel.

Anyway, gotta run. I'm buying a new Ferrari tonight as I have $234 million on the way from some guy in Africa and I just know the check will arrive any day now as I have given them all my bank info and already sent them the required $8K to process everything

Tony

Can you pick me up one while you're there? I promise I'll paypal you the money first thing tomorrow.