Solingen "Strangen-Pasta" Black & Red

Hi there!
I'm a complete newby with a Solingen strop and strop paste - not knowing if I should use the paste at all!

So, I got this nice SOlingen strop with ONE very SMOOTH CREAM LEATHER SIDE and the OTHER a not-too-fuzzy SUEDED SIDE, and together with it a small red box "Stranden-Pasta" (apparently DOVO sells it) with two even smaller pastes inside wrapped in blue and red paper.
The blue wrap has a BLACK paste. The red, a kind of brownish-red paste. Both smooth to touch.

On the internet I found that the black is extra-fine and the red is fine.

SO QUESTION: which one to use??

And on which side of the strop - sueded or regular side?

SHould I use both - one on each side? Or keep one of the sides clean?

Thanks !!

dont use the paste at all. unless you get a dedicated strop for sharpening. you will use both sides of the strop for your daily use. get a second strop to apply the paste that you will use about once a month or once every two months. you might want to get your new blade honed so that it will be shave ready. they usually don't come shave ready.

hmmm ok!
I think I'll get an old leather belt for the paste.

About honing....what if I give 60 light strokes each side with the strop...can I sub that for sending it out for honing?
I was also considering buying a 8k grit GOLD japanese and doing it home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aefavant

hmmm ok!
I think I'll get an old leather belt for the paste.

About honing....what if I give 60 light strokes each side with the strop...can I sub that for sending it out for honing?
I was also considering buying a 8k grit GOLD japanese and doing it home.

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No, you need to strop EVERY shave regardless. Stroping is not the same as honing.

If your razor did not come from a venor that hand hones the razors before they send them out it will need a professional honing before you will get a decent shave out of it. Check with where you got it from and if it was not hand honed by them it needs to go out. http://straightrazorpalace.com/class...wcat.php?cat=4

If the strop is a single piece of leather dont use the rougher side. It is a single component strop so just use the smooth side.

I am a newbie to this but from all my reading and absorbing the information prior to jumping in I bought two leather strops single sided and a linen strop and Dovo red/black paste.

Here is what was told to me by the vendor/owner for me as a beginner and there may be a wide varying opinion on this.

One leather strop dedicate to the red paste for when the razor starts to tug a tad upon shaving......suppose to resharpen the blade to get back to shave quality.

One leather strop dedicated to the Dovo black paste which is a chromium paste that finishes the blade prior to use for shaving.

Linen strop for prepping the blade to heat it up just a tad prior to stropping on either.

So after it starts to feel like a bit of tug to the whiskers strop the blade a dozen times on the linen which has nothing added to the strop......pure straight linen.

Wipe the blade with tissue clean.

Then strop on the red paste dedicated leather strop a few dozen times to get the blade to shave ready. Wipe the blade again with a tissue to get the remnants of paste off.

Then go to the dedicated leather strop with black finishing paste and do a few dozen strokes at most to finish off the blade then wipe down of the remnants of paste with tissue.

Then you are ready supposedly if the technique was correct to shave.

Both leather strops I have are single sided and use only the smooth side for these paste......never to use the back side.

So this was told to me to get me started. I do not hone nor would I try this early in the game because I would ruin a blade. The owner/vendor I bought from has free honing service for life from which I bought the razor so that will be my avenue until I learn to hone from knowledgable folks.

Now this method was like I stated told to me by a person dedicated to razors.......I hope it is right because this is what I am doing. Plus after each shave I do set the razor up for the next session by the above methods and oil the blade since it is a carbon steel and I don't want it to rust.

So like I stated.......hope this method is a viable one told to me!

What the gentleman before me have said is good advice. You should have a "clean" strop and linen component for daily use--that is, a strop and linen with nothing on it. I do 30 round trip on linen and then 50 round trip on leather before and after each shave.

Could you use the pastes? Sure. Maybe get a couple of balsa strops on the cheap before you use it on a leather strop.