According to the same manual you are supposed to apply some pressure on the strop. It is mentioned specifically, as opposed to honing with a stone.
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Something that I just posted else where too...
Half of you believe that pastes Round/Convex the bevel the other half swear that pastes create a weak edge that fails quickly.... This is counter intuitive guys unless the edge is this nano sized piece of foil steel at the end of the round bevel?????
Here is a post where mparker762 having experimented with pastes extensively on various surfaces found that paste by itself will not degrade the edge if it is applied and used properly.
"need" is a bad word that needlessly confuses things more often than not. You also don't "need" hones if you have the appropriate pastes- they both work.
Well, not at first. What I'm suggesting is that if you use pasted balsa, for example, instead of bare leather every day, you shouldn't have to go to the hone for a real long time, and you'll always have 'fresh' edges.Quote:
I have not noticed a need to hone a blade often that was stropped properly. As we know, honing cuts the blade, too much or too often will shorten the life of a blade.
I'm not talking about replacing coarse hones with coarse pastes, just more frequent touch ups so that you don't have to go so coarse.Quote:
I personally think the use of pastes for honing at anything other than a very fine polishing stage is a relatively new phenomena.
I maintain my knives with a pasted strop, and only have to go back to stones if I get so much use in one session that it dulls them past what a strop can quickly fix.
Sounds to me like you are going with the old saying of "It is much easier to keep an edge sharp, then to sharpen an edge"....
Well said. I can't recall where exactly I read some vintage razor instruction, maybe nassrasur, but there was mention that pastes (which of course were used "back in the day") were recommended only for experienced barbers to use whereas hones were for everyone, but most importantly for inexperienced barbers.
Chris L
I would be wary of it being too much of a good thing. Untreated linen/leather will maintain an edge while a daily dose of paste might lead to overhoning IMO.
I could see doing linen & leather and then when the edge began to feel a bit 'off' going to paste to refresh but not daily ... again... IMO. Whatever works for you is fine as long as it works. :)
I was thinking of just reducing the number of strokes so you don't over hone. Maybe just 2 passes per side or something.
Though maybe you really do want to do a bunch of passes on smooth leather and just touch up less than daily but still fairly frequently.
I shave much less often than every day (probably a couple dozen times this past year) so I don't have to worry so much about overhoning, and have to worry more about corrosion between shaves.