Another way I get edges is like this. Did one today.
Took a coticule and killed the edge (on the side of the stone passing once or twice, I did it twice). Made some medium thick slurry and did some back and forth half strokes until it got fairly darker. If it's fast, this doesn't take more than a minute. If not, well, it might take a while. And finished with alternative strokes edge trailing. Again, based on speed these may vary from just a few. After, paddle stropped on chromium oxide for 20 times (mine is quite fast, others might be slower) and iron oxide for polishing more about 40 times. Hand stropped a few times. That's all it took.
And I have this strange edge I can't cut myself with, but I don't feel any pulling or dragging either and it's really comfortable.
I was thinking about different ways of getting an edge and one thing that is almost always necessary and essential, seems to be stropping.
Stropping in itself is as demanding as sharpening or honing. I've been reading many times that it takes about a year or so to understand and master stropping, on a daily basis routine. That's some claim. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but the emphasis it puts on proper technique is real. At this level, poor stropping can undo anything good in a single pass. That's all it takes to ruin the edge. And stropping more, won't put the edge back. I've tried with a huge variety of strops. Never worked. It's always back to stone honing.
Hanging strops have the tendency to be more forgiving in some cases, while paddles in others. In my experience, if the paddle has even the slightest give, people are getting proficient with it faster. All it takes is to adjust the pressure not to flex the razor. With hanging strops is a bit more problematic keeping tension, pressure and rolling just right at the same time. But getting that much needed convexity is more natural with a hanging strop.
Took a coticule and killed the edge (on the side of the stone passing once or twice, I did it twice). Made some medium thick slurry and did some back and forth half strokes until it got fairly darker. If it's fast, this doesn't take more than a minute. If not, well, it might take a while. And finished with alternative strokes edge trailing. Again, based on speed these may vary from just a few. After, paddle stropped on chromium oxide for 20 times (mine is quite fast, others might be slower) and iron oxide for polishing more about 40 times. Hand stropped a few times. That's all it took.
And I have this strange edge I can't cut myself with, but I don't feel any pulling or dragging either and it's really comfortable.
I was thinking about different ways of getting an edge and one thing that is almost always necessary and essential, seems to be stropping.
Stropping in itself is as demanding as sharpening or honing. I've been reading many times that it takes about a year or so to understand and master stropping, on a daily basis routine. That's some claim. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but the emphasis it puts on proper technique is real. At this level, poor stropping can undo anything good in a single pass. That's all it takes to ruin the edge. And stropping more, won't put the edge back. I've tried with a huge variety of strops. Never worked. It's always back to stone honing.
Hanging strops have the tendency to be more forgiving in some cases, while paddles in others. In my experience, if the paddle has even the slightest give, people are getting proficient with it faster. All it takes is to adjust the pressure not to flex the razor. With hanging strops is a bit more problematic keeping tension, pressure and rolling just right at the same time. But getting that much needed convexity is more natural with a hanging strop.