Thread: Pasted strops

What is a “pasted” strop?

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.

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.

Pasted strops can be a fun way to improve the quality of your shave. You can use a variety of materials for the backing and a variety of abrasives for the "paste".

Some people use an old fabric or leather hanging strop and apply either an abrasive spray or paste. Since a hanging strop bows when you you it, the edge of the razor will be rounded off microscopically, making the edge smoother, but not necessarily keener.

Some people use paddle or bench strops that have little or no flexing. They can make the edge both smoother and keener with the proper abrasives. These can be made from soft woods such as balsa or basswood from your local hardware store or hobby shop sanded flat with an abrasive paste or spray applied directly to the wood. I have several strops made in this manner.

You can also glue leather to a backing such as glass, balsa, basswood, or thin plywood. I also purchased such a strop made from kangaroo leather on glass. I have also made several from vegetable tanned cowhide (sometimes called tooling leather) on wood backing.

You can also glue fabric such as microfiber cloth or linen to a backing material. I have one made from linen I got a the local fabric show and another made from a microfiber glass polishing cloth.

Initially, I tried using a spray pressure adhesive to glue the leather or cloth to the backing, but I found that Elmer's glue sticks used by school kids works quite well and are far less messy.

As for abrasives, there are a number of choices. You can purchase polishing crayons or powders made from chromium oxide (CrOx) or Ferric oxide (FeOX). You can purchase Cerium oxide designed for polishing glass. You can find a variety of sizes of Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) or polycrystaline or monocrystaline diamonds. They are available in sprays and sometimes can be found as pastes. You can even try polishing compounds such as Mothers Mag polish, although the particle size might not be as fine as you desire. The green chromium oxide bars found in hardware and auto parts stores might work, but may not have a carefully controlled particle size. It is best to purchase product designed for razor use.

Although I have tried a variety of abrasive compounds, my current favorites are 0.5 micron CBN paste followed by 0.25 CBN paste, followed by 0.10 CBN spray. I was getting good edges off the 0.25 CBN paste. I really doubted that I would notice a significant difference in my edges when adding the finer 0.10 CBN spray, but I was wrong. I did notice an improvement in my edges. Thus, I use now the three in progression following honing and anytime I cannot get a great edge from my leather strop alone. I use the 0.5 micron and 0.25 micron pastes on leather backed by balsa. I use the 0.10 micron spray on the kangaroo leather backed by glass that I purchased.

Thanks for the info