Advice on diamond paste for my strop.

Good day to y'all.

As my numbers of posts and my questions reveal I am new to the forum.

I got infected with the (straight razor) virus not too long ago when I got my first straight razor and have since then accumulated a few more. I'm assuming that that's probably everyones story around here.

Now, I figured that for now it would be best to not be working with the expensive stuff just yet so I got myself an old strop that I found on ebay for not too much so that I can get a hang on things before I get myself a proper, more expensive strop.

To get to the point, I have this strop that on one side is the usual leather and the other side is a "diamond hone". Shouldn't I be getting myself some diamond paste to slap on there and if so can anyone direct me to an affordable paste to butter on there? I can get the razor that I'm using to be fairly sharp so that it shaves but I'd love to get that final touch to it so that I can get it to a proper level.

I am sure that my razor could well do with some honing too so I thought I'd ask whether anybody would be into selling me one of their old stones so that I can start enjoying my shaves to the fullest.

Any help on this matter is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Tryggvi

My strop has a linen or canvas, not sure if this is what you are referring to. I have a bottle of diamond spray 0.5um made my HandAmerican that I rub on the canvas let it dry and use when needed (usually a few about 5 or so laps). This stuff lasts a long time. I do not use the diamond before every shave. I think that it works best when you use for touch ups (when you feel a bit of pulling on the razor).

Al raz.

I don't think that the "diamond hone" side is at all linen or canvas. My strop says "Munger strop co 5x St. Louis", if anyone is familiar with that brand. Maybe I'm completely wrong on what the back side layer is.

I recommend having a different paddle strop for pastes. You can have different grades pasted for each side, thus giving you more options to sharpen up the blade.

Tony Millers offers a nice 4 sided strop or you can make your own out of Balsa wood. In effect, you are setting up a light honing tool and this will postponed the trips to the stone honing.

I am not familiar with your strop, but from your description, I am guessing the side in question was once treated with .50 ChomOx paste or has the effect of the .50 paste with the current material.

Sounds like an interesting purchase and some of the fun in straight shaving is getting to know your equipment.

Good Luck!

Pabster