Thread: I use pastes...

OK, I'll admit it. I am a paste user.

I tried to kick the habit the last few weeks, but what can I say...I'm weak

I had read all about how using pastes is considered as "using a crutch". I also had taken a look under the scope at a number of my edges (some of which can be seen in this thread...) , and I got all compulsive about having some rounding going on with my use of pastes on my beloved hand-crafted (using a nice flat Levi canvas belt from Sears $8.95) canvas pasted strops. My theory being that I should work to get a nice linear geometry to my edge for some reason or other

So I dilligently set about resetting the bevels (some of these pics are in that thread as well), and honing them up as best I could with my diamond lapping film array- 9um, 6um, 3um, 1um, 0.5um, 0.1um with a precision granite plate. I also made a balsa chrome ox paddle strop and shaved away. However, I recently realized that my shaves were pretty good, but I had to do a lot more blade buffing to get a really close BBS shave, and it wasn't quite as comfortable as it had been.

So, I said "screwit, I'm going back to the strops/pastes!". Now then, my edges off the films were pretty good, and they passed the HHT fine. But after a gave the razors a going over with my pasted hanging canvas strops: one side-Dovo red paste (rumored to be ~3um), 1um diamond paste , and the last one is the crayon style chrome ox. At this point the edge is not just HHT, but dropping the hairs without any sound or resistance.

I just finished my first shave off of the pastes in a coupe of weeks, and it was/is noticeable closer, smoother, less irritation, and required less passes than previously. Really, much, much better.

Most of the pics I post of egdes are all at a standardized 200x, but that is just for the sake of comparrision. I can zoom in all the way up to 1000x on that scope, and at 500-1000x there was a fair bit of micro-jaggedness to the lapping film/paddle strop edge that is not there at all after I go through my paste routine.

Another thing that I saw, is there is a polarizer filter I can use that is very effective at showed deformation/curvature along the edge. And if I honed the razor too much on the lapping films, the edge definitely got to be too fine. I could see the very edge start to get wavy, apparently very thin. I found that leaving it at about the 1um level was about the best balance of edge refinement vs. too fine an edge.

With the pasted strops, I can use the same filter, and it will show that yes, the edge is getting a bit rounded over, but it remains straight and smooth, and from the HHT is actually even much sharper.

The balsa paddle strop didn't get me to this place either, I had to revert to my hanging canvas strops.

So, not only am I a paste user, but I do it on hanging strops, thereby rounding my edge geometry, and all that stuff that sounds disastrous...

And it gives me a fantastic shave!