Question about stropping

Hey Gents

Yesterday I was playing around with my strop and a blade that I had that needs to be honed .It is no where near shave ready just wanted to practice stropping as I am still very new to straights. so as I was stropping I notice a small flake chipped off of the edge . I had the strop taught and was not applying any pressure what could I have done wrong .I was also moving pretty slow .

Thanks for the help



Nick

Thats unusual. Maybe if it was a vintage blade and it had some oxidation damage or was overhoned?

I'm going to agree with AFDavis11 on this one.

Assuming that it is a vintage blade and that you didn't flip the blade over its cutting edge on the leather (and we know you would never pull such a 'no-no' as that) then it is possible that this old blade had some imperfections that chose that moment to manifest themselves.

Rust or corrosion is often the culprit here. Especially surface corrosion from neglect can often dig deeper into the steel than might be expected.

Also, I have seen vintage blades which show minute 'gas voids' in the steel. You can think of these as little bubble holes within the body of the steel. When these occur near the finely ground edge of a straight razor they do represent a weak point in the steel and can (especially in conjunction with a bit of corrosion) lead to cracking or chipping.

A last very important point to remember is that your razor strop should be absolutely clean and free of dirt when you are using it. If, for example, a grain of sand or, or what have you, ends up on the leather of the strop, then when you pass the razor across it that grain would all it takes to damage the razor's edge.

ignatz said:

I'm going to agree with AFDavis11 on this one.

Assuming that it is a vintage blade and that you didn't flip the blade over its cutting edge on the leather (and we know you would never pull such a 'no-no' as that) then it is possible that this old blade had some imperfections that chose that moment to manifest themselves.

Rust or corrosion is often the culprit here. Especially surface corrosion from neglect can often dig deeper into the steel than might be expected.

Also, I have seen vintage blades which show minute 'gas voids' in the steel. You can think of these as little bubble holes within the body of the steel. When these occur near the finely ground edge of a straight razor they do represent a weak point in the steel and can (especially in conjunction with a bit of corrosion) lead to cracking or chipping.

A last very important point to remember is that your razor strop should be absolutely clean and free of dirt when you are using it. If, for example, a grain of sand or, or what have you, ends up on the leather of the strop, then when you pass the razor across it that grain would all it takes to damage the razor's edge.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply guys .

I can say that I did not flip the blade over the cutting edge. over honing I have not honed this razor I just stropped it to learn how to do it .

I think the problem was the last of what you mentioned on the very top of the strop there is a stamp of the makers name and I could have possibly went to high and gone over that .

Now do I need to get this razor honed to get the edge back ? or would a strop with some diamond paste do the trick it is a very thin flake that came off I have tried to take pictures of it but I can not get it to show



Thank you for the help

Nick

Describing a flake as small or thin doesn't help much for my advice but in general I would always try and fix it myself first with whatever I had. Might be a great time to learn to hone.

Joel has produced a honing tutorial so concise and correct that I think a 10 year old would have a good shot at removing a small nick with a stone.

Given what you have I'd suggest you try and use it (the paste). You'll do little damage to the blade and since you probably consider the blade unshaveable anyway, whats the worry?

If you could give some good measurements I'd have a better answer.

The problem I have is that the rest of the edge is probably sharp (and in perrfect condition) and in your effort to remove any nick with a pasted paddle you risk over abrading the parts of the edge that are ok (now).

Its remotely possible, if you have much better eyesight than me, that you could just continue shaving with it. The flake would have to have been really small and since you saw it fly off in my mind it has to be huge (in edge perspective). But teeny tiny nicks in the edge are sometimes ok.

If you can strop the razor on your palm without feeling the nick it might be ok to shave with.

If you can see the nick with your naked eye I would hone it out.

So my two questions would be:

How big is the section left with a dent in it from the flake and what grit of pastes do you have to work with?

My gut tells me its going to need to be honed though. It sounds from your description that the edge might still be intact and the flake is a section from the side of the bevel??????

I have .5 and 1

The flake is on the side of the bevel.

I am not worried about This particular razor and did plan on learning how to hone with this one . with in the next week or so I would like to place an order for a Norton but I have not yet decided if that is the route I want to take so it may be more then a week for my purchase



Nick

Well, I say "Go for it" then.

1 M paste first followed by .5 would be my plan. I have always found that with pasted paddles you have to shave test often and go with conservative sets.

If you can get a mircroscope and say a wooden match they may help too. If you over "hone" you can draw the edge through the match stick.

AFDavis11 said:

Well, I say "Go for it" then.

1 M paste first followed by .5 would be my plan. I have always found that with pasted paddles you have to shave test often and go with conservative sets.

Click to expand...

I did this and it worked thanks for the help . I can not see the chip any more and the blade looks very sharp I have not yet tried to shave with it . I will let you know the out come .

AFDavis11 said:

If you can get a mircroscope and say a wooden match they may help too. If you over "hone" you can draw the edge through the match stick.

Click to expand...

Would you care to elaborate for me the exact use of the match stick?


Nick

papasmurf said:

I did this and it worked thanks for the help . I can not see the chip any more and the blade looks very sharp I have not yet tried to shave with it . I will let you know the out come .



Would you care to elaborate for me the exact use of the match stick?


Nick

Click to expand...

Nick,
The wood on a match stick is quite soft, so if you lightly draw the edge across the wooden part of a match stick, it will shear off the wire edge from over honing.

- hope this helps!

joel said:

Nick,
The wood on a match stick is quite soft, so if you lightly draw the edge across the wooden part of a match stick, it will shear off the wire edge from over honing.

- hope this helps!

Click to expand...

So it would be like corking a blade?



Nick

papasmurf said:

So it would be like corking a blade?



Nick

Click to expand...

No. Cork is really soft, almost spongy. A match stick is much firmer, thus a matchstick is more aggressive.

joel said:

No. Cork is really soft, almost spongy. A match stick is much firmer, thus a matchstick is more aggressive.

Click to expand...

No I am not saying to use a cork. I am saying it would be the equivalent of corking a feather blade if I am not mistaken it would be the same out come correct?




Nick

joel said:

No. Cork is really soft, almost spongy. A match stick is much firmer, thus a matchstick is more aggressive.

Click to expand...

Same general idea I think. To kind of wipe off bur metal. But yes, a match stick would be much more aggressive. Probably enough to dull a razor blade a little. I am assuming after doing this you then rehone the edge on a straight razor. The tiny tiny lit roughness you are rubbing off corking a DE blade would be a lot smaller the the wire edge on an overhoned razor.

-Mo

I'm glad it worked out for you. Sorry I left you hanging; the matchstick is used to tear off the burr from overhoning.