It’s not about the cost or the extra work involved, but more about getting tailored results that work for you. For years I honed with just a few natural stones, then slowly migrated to some synthetics as they improved and became more popular. Then to pastes as my razor collection grew and the quest, to make all of them shave equally and be “go to razors”. What I discovered was that it raised the level of sharpness of all my razors and dramatically improved the quality and comfort of my shaves.

Clearly you can maintain a razor with just a few or possibly only one stone and a strop. But there is a learning curve, a big learning curve.

My experiment with paste began as a quest to get one stubborn razor to become a”go to” razor. I could never get this one razor quite as sharp and comfortable as the rest, until I used paste.

Now I probably could go back to hones, but why? Paste, gives you so many more options and the ability to sneak up on a level of sharpness and comfort that work for you, for each razor. Sharpness and shaving comfort are almost mutually exclusive, and that is the ultimate balancing act. Add to that everyone’s skin and beard combinations are different and the ability to fine tune the edge to your face with each razor is the difference between using paste and any old C-12.

You don’t need to use paste, I know people who still carry pagers and scratch their head trying to figure out how to get email on the damn thing.

Marty