Thread: Keeping it sharp. (With Pics)

Hi Again Everyone

Just got a quick question I hope people can help me with. I've been shaving with my Dovo best quality now for a bit over a month. I have a double strop with leather and fabric sides, although the fabric side only has one usable side not two, the baking is a fake leather. I only ordered a fairly cheap 3" strop for my first strop as I expected to nick it when learning to strop which I have (See pictures)

I am learning that everyone seems to have their own ways of doing things, and basically there are no set rules just whatever works for you. But my question is about keeping the razor really sharp, so far I have used strop paste, the Dove black paste from the black and red pack, I have put some on the one fabric side of my strop and done about 10-15 passes, this has worked for me as after I do my normal strop on the leather side I get a really good shave from it.

I was even told by someone that you should use a pasted strop before every shave, can anyone experienced tell me what they do or don't do. So far I have only used the pasted side every 4-5 shaves once the blade starts to get dull and pull. And so far so good it get it back to being really sharp and shaves well.

Is there any harm in doing this before every shave, if not it would make sense to do this as I would always get the very best shave from my razor.

Please any advise from experienced people using pastes and strops would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Here is what I have found about the Dovo pastes over the years and trust me the actual numbers are well hidden


Green = 5-8 Microns (is NOT like the Green CrOx that is so popular on here)
Red = 3-5 Microns
Black = about 1 micron

They tend to be rather gentle on the steel they do not cut near as fast as say Diamonds in the same range, in fact they present a rather smooth comfortable edge after the Black paste..
For upkeep it is rather hard to say what YOUR razor needs as each of us has different requirements for our faces, I can tell you to start slow and work up from there until you hit the sweet spot..

Also I can tell you that SRP is a "Hone Crazy" site most of our members head to the hone to improve the edge, there are other EU sites that don't believe the same as we do and use the pastes much more...
I can also tell you that "Proper" use of the Red and Black paste can keep your razor working very well for quite some time.
You just have to figure out what the "Proper" amount is for you..

The only down side possible is rounding of the bevel through EXTENDED use of paste on a strop, I emphasized the word extended, because it really isn't as easy as many believe unless you are improperly stropping..
If I were going to get serious about using a strop to maintain my razors I would find an old Loom Style strop or even better have a new one made...

I can't really say anything about your question because I'm still to even have a straight shave but I noticed the metal fixing at the end of your strop, which has given me an idea on how to make my own in a slightly different way that shown in the wiki here that used special riveting ( = more expenditure) IIRC. Bolting down onto the leather looks a good alternative for the DIY er.

I only use paste to touch mine up every so often when I start to feel it pull...

I've used the Dovo Green and Dovo Red on separate felt pasted stropping boards finishing on a CroX pasted stropping board.

Did one blade from the Green up and it restored the edge to shave ready, mind you bevel was already set.

Next time I do this, going to finish on my Coti with just water before going to the CrOx...at this point, I've done this once, and am just figuring out how to prolong the life on the razor between honing.

As I mentioned in another thread, I figure this is still a refreshing of the blade because no bevel is being set....but the Red and Green seemed to take the razor much farther than when I just tried using the coti alone. Mind you, I didn't use the slurry stone with the coti, just water...waiting for next lesson on using the two sides of the slurry stone, each will produce a different grit level...patience!!

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Also I can tell you that SRP is a "Hone Crazy" site most of our members head to the hone to improve the edge, there are other EU sites that don't believe the same as we do and use the pastes much more...
I can also tell you that "Proper" use of the Red and Black paste can keep your razor working very well for quite some time.
You just have to figure out what the "Proper" amount is for you..

The only down side possible is rounding of the bevel through EXTENDED use of paste on a strop, I emphasized the word extended, because it really isn't as easy as many believe unless you are improperly stropping..

Is there any experience here with periodically going to a finishing hone (barber hone, coti, c12k ect.…) along with pastes in order to keep the edge from rounding? For example, when the blade starts tugging and needs to be refreshed to go to a finishing stone for a few laps and then a few more on pastes and then strop. Would this help to prevent the pastes from rounding an edge?

I would hate to use pastes for months just to find out the edge has gone so far down the scale that I would have to remove steel on a 4k. If that's the case why not just use a barber hone or c12k to bring the edge back and then finish it with a paste or even Maas polish or just use a stone and rarely if ever use paste?