A engrossing conversation, that you guys are having here.
First, about Liam Finnagan's stropping technique, he uses a very thick strop, and has a lot of slack in it,
but his strop doesn't bend at the edge, I will guarantee you that.
Per request of Lynn Abrahms, I made a diagram once, that illustrates what I think is an important factor when stropping, way more important that the actual slack in a strop.
Ar in words, there needs to be some pressure on the spine. The ultimate of not having any pressure on the spine, is lifting it.
If you want to know what it does, try it! I have.
Take a razor that passes the HHT well and strop it 5 laps with the spine lifted a few mm above the leather. What a nice way to kill the HHT.
Now strop the same razor about 30 laps in good fashion. Notice how the HHT returns. That someone tells me again that stropping isn't about realigning an edge. I bet Robin stropped this 4/8 before shaving with it yesterday. I regularly receive "assess my edge before rehoning it"-razors, that I can easily improve with a bit of efficient stropping.
Bottom line: inefficient stropping doesn't instantly kill an edge, unless we're talking about turning the razor over the edge, or some other severe calamity. Nevertheless, inefficient stropping will be, well eh...
inefficient.
The case against pasted stropping has a lot to do with it being much easier. If it were as good as honing, what fools would we be to use solid hones for achieving something that can be done quicker and easier with a 4 sided paddle and the right pastes. So, there
has to be something wrong with it, right? As a perverse side-effect, everyone can quickly learn to sharpen with a 4-sided paddle, so no one would need to rely on "professional" honing. The international honing hero's consortium can't allow that to happen, can they?
But all joking aside, take a razor, dull on glass, hone it on a Coticule with slurry till it shaves arm hair. Next take it to a paddle strop with Dovo red paste for 30 laps and finish on a paddle strop with CrO. Shaves me very well. Been there, done that and all. But don't put the CrO paddle to far away, because you will soon be using it every other shave. Is there something wrong with that? Hell no. Your razor will still last many years and the shaves will always be great. I know several people who use that method. By the way Robin: all pasted stropping lends it ease and efficiency from a pliable or compressible surface. It is the introduced convexity that focuses the abrasive action on the very edge. In a way, the layer of tape in the Unicot method achieves exactly the same. But there is nothing inherently wrong with a convex edge. It just needs to be re-flattened ever once in a while. That is easy enough.
Chris, about the lifting of the spine. It has been speculated that the old wedges were honed with the spine lifted above the hones, just like a normal knife would be sharpened. The fact that most antique wedges are not found with the kind of bevel width that would be present if they were being sharpened flat on the hones, seems to support that hypothesis. If we read your old resource in that light, we must not be surprised that they would not strop the razor flat either. Just a thought.
Kind regards,
Bart.
