Thread: Pasted strops

Originally Posted by alschepis

What is a “pasted” strop?

Originally Posted by RezDog

It is a strop with an abrasive paste on it. Some of the more common ones are chromium oxide, ferrous oxide and cerium oxide. There are also proprietary ones out there by Dovo and TI as well as Puma.

There is also diamond and many more abrasives.
In general any abrasive coarser than 0.5microns is to be avoided by razor folk.
Once applied you cannot switch to a finer abrasive.

Because a razor strop flexes an abrasive that is too coarse will alter the final bevel that
most here work so hard to get exactly correct.

Knife sharpeners and ax sharpeners use strops loaded with abrasive coarser than
we like to finish with. Their goals are different so their tools are different.

Some strops have a hard backing like leather glued to wood.
One example is the Lynn Abrams, Modular Paddle strop that has
the strop material glued to a magetic material and allows swapping
one surface for another.

Some strops are made of hard or soft wood. From time
to time I like to play with balsa wood strops and submicron
diamond or CBN spray.

Some here will apply a green chromium oxide or other 'paste' to the wrong side
of our fabric strop and use it immediatly after honing while keeping
the primary strop surface clean.

The value is that a final polish can produce a calmer and smoother shaving edge.

If you want to play start with a diamond spray at 0.25 microns and apply it
to a spare fabric or felt strop. The green stuff stains carpet so you are warned.

With age a canvas strop will get a bit gray from use. That gray is commonly
tiny bits of oxidized steel or iron oxide. Iron oxides are abrasive see Jewelers rouge .

Remember you cannot remove sprayed on abrasive so a spare strop or
a very very fine spray like Diamond 0.25micron to start.

Modern hones down to 18K and even 30K all but eliminate the historic need
to add polishing and abrasive stuff to strops.

Have fun... we all try it... just do not wreck a great strop when playing.