Thread: Considering a move to pastes...advice sought

First off, thanks so much for the great advice I've received here. Nearly through my first week of SR shaving and doing reasonably well....today's success was getting a clean shave of those hairs right under my nose. Chin still poses some issues...

Anyway, not ready to hone but thought I can use some sharpness that the strop and cotton dont deliver. Thought I'd get a Tony Miller bench strop kit and some pastes thinking I'm less likely to screw up the blade on pastes than a hone at this point. Right or wrong (sure I can screw up anything in a multitude of ways including pastes)? Which pastes in what grades/grids or whateveryoucallem.

Thanks again, Jim

In average, people hone their razors every couple of months (2 to 3) but of course there are exceptions. If you find yourself in need of a more frequent "touch up" (pastes and/or light honing), you may want to take a look at your technique, beard preparation and stropping technique, as possible causes of the problem. Please check the wiki for advice on these:

Main Page - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I am not sure that it is advised to "touch up" your razors before every shave but again, everyone is different. Also, contrary to popular believe, it is very easy to damage the edge of a razor using pastes if you do not do it right, just be careful.

Al raz.

Here is what Tony wrote about the pastes for his paddles and here is a tutorial for pasting a strop. Less is definitely more with pastes IME.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Here is what Tony wrote about the pastes for his paddles and here is a tutorial for pasting a strop. Less is definitely more with pastes IME.

i would wear a glove on the hand you apply the paste with......

1 paddle strop pasted with dry .5 micron Chromium Oxide will work wonders for polishing up a shaving edge on your less than satisfactory first hone jobs done on a stone. It can also greatly extending the times between needing a stone to do actual touch ups. You are right, pasted strop are a very forgiving method to achieve success with little skill and little chance of damage to a blade.

A two sided paddle strop is an excellent tool for the straight razor shaver. I would select 1.0 or .5 diamond paste on one side and .5 CrO for the other.

bj