Thread: Strop versus Hone

A couple of years ago when I was starting out I purchased three inch wide leather directly from Hand American (http://www.handamerican.com/). If I remember right, in one purchase I had enough to make my own hanging strop and two homemade flat-bed hones. I also purchased from them the black and green pastes. There is another recent thread around here on making paddle stops however; suffice to say I went with what I had laying around: a couple of pieces of 4"x1" pine. I used Elmer's white glue to glue the leather and presto--homemade flat-bed hones. Just apply the paste and your set to go.

Over two years now and they are still in use. I've graduated to a new strop but, I still use my flat-bed hones all the time. I got some great advice when I started out from Mr. Randy Tuttle: 20 laps on each and then test. If not sharp enough, go back and repeat.

If I had to go back and start over again, I'd go with pasted strops every time.

-Pary

Originally Posted by yawdeuce

Thank you for all the advice. It is starting to make a lot more sense. I am thinking that the route that I will take is to get an extra wide paddle strop and 1.0 and .5 micron diamond paste. Should that be enough to keep a sharp edge so long as I do not do something wrong?
Very adequate for a killer shave. Do you have to treat paddle stops first NO or can you just put the paste on it right when it comes? YEP, just dilute the paste with a bit of oil or cream, 50/50, about 2 pea sized drops Do the pastes come with instructions? No This site is more helpfull than I can even tell you. Everyone here sure helps the learning curve. Thank you.
-Sean

Your welcome!

I agree that the pasted strop route is the easiest,
and will probably give you better results than the
barber hone for the most part.

You can order pre-pasted paddle strops from Tony
in both CrO green paste or diamond paste. I have
a 2-sided paddle with CrO pasted leather and latigo
from Tony and it works great! You can grab extra
green paste from handamerican.com.

If you want a 2-sided pasted strop, go with black
and green, or 1.0 and 0.5 micron diamond pastes.
That will be able to maintain a razors edge indefin-
itely.

- Scott

So would a double sided pasted paddle strop be enough to turn a new off the shelf razor into a shave-ready razor? I have presumed to bring these up to speed I'd have to splurge on 4k/8k and a finishing stone.

I hope this isn't a hijack - I figured it is along the same lines...

Welsh,

The pasted paddles or flat bed hones are by themselves likely not able to turn an off the shelf razor into a shaving marvel. More steel needs to be removed from the bevel than is easily done by such fine abrasives. It is possible to get to good edge development with them alone but it would require an extremely long time investment. Imagine making the flat bed hone by starting with a tree and 80 grit sandpaper.

Originally Posted by welshwarrior

So would a double sided pasted paddle strop be enough to turn a new off the shelf razor into a shave-ready razor? I have presumed to bring these up to speed I'd have to splurge on 4k/8k and a finishing stone.

I hope this isn't a hijack - I figured it is along the same lines...

No it would not, The bevel from the factory is at an angle that needs to be adjusted. This is usually done by a 4K hone followed by an 8K hone, then the abrasive pastes.
You really need to have the razor honed by someone from the SRP before you use it. Then it will be shave ready. You will also need a plain leather strop. The plain leather strop is to be used just before each shave, use approx 50 roundtrip laps.

Okay, thanks fellas.