How long between honings with a Pasted Strop?

Hello All,

I have been wet shaving with a DE for a while now and am looking to get a straight.

I plan on purchasing a pre-honed razor and was wondering how long it would stay keen using a pasted paddle strop.

I had the:
Heirloom Combination, Vintage Style 4 Sided Paddle Strop

In mind with 3.0, 1, 0.5 micron pastes; leaving the 4th side red latigo for honing.

Will the paddle strop be acceptable for pre-shave stroping or would I be better off with a hanging strop in addition?

If purchasing a hanging strop and norton 4k/8k makes more sense I can certainly go that route too; just trying to find the best equipment to start with.

Thanks!
-Geoff

Pasted strops can maintain an edge for a long time. I have 4 razors in my rotation and I'm at about two years since Lynn honed them up. The main thing is not to let the razor become excessively dull before hitting the paste.

That is certainly encouraging to hear.

Are you stropping on the paddle; or using a hanging strop?

Also, what pastes are you using?

Thanks
-Geoff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sensei_kyle

Pasted strops can maintain an edge for a long time. I have 4 razors in my rotation and I'm at about two years since Lynn honed them up. The main thing is not to let the razor become excessively dull before hitting the paste.

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I'm using a homemade paddle strop with 0.5 microm chromium oxide and 1.8 micron boron carbide.

The BC and CO is pretty much the combination I've settled on as well. Seems to make a nicer edge than the diamond paste.

I've wondered how the diamond pastes compared. Can you describe why you like them less?

The edge doesn't seem to be as smooth or as strong. They are a bit faster though, and you can get them in nice industrial grade grit sizes.

I can't comment on how the various pastes stack up as I am mainly a diamond and TI paste user but have fooled with the chromium oxide a little. It does seem to do a nice job but might need refreshing a bit more often.

Any of the regular users of CO care to comment on longevity? It seems like a nice choice though if it holds up.


As for paddle over hanging, they each have their place. A wider longer hanging strop will certainly do a better job at daily stropping hands down but some guys want to start with a single tool and so I add a red latigo side for daily use on the Combo version of my 4 sided paddle. It is not as effective and will take more passes but does the job if limited of space and or budget and if you want to start with just one tool while you learn. Ultimately both would be better.

I just added a getting started page to my main website, www.thewellshavedgentleman.com It explains what is needed and how it all works, razors, stones, hones and pasted and hanging strops. I also discuss the important of starting with a sharp razor over trying to do you own the right in the beginning.

Tony Miller

Just for your consideration, I don't use any pastes, just a plain hanging strop, and can go for a year or longer without rehoning. I use the same razor everyday and stropping keeps it HHT keen. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't use paste if you want, I just think it's more technique than anything else.

Any details on your homemade paddle strop?

I am thinking of constructing a two sided paddle strop out of 3/4" ply and attaching balsa.

Figured 3"x12" + handle (which I will just cut into the ply).

What did you use?

Thanks!
-Geoff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sensei_kyle

I'm using a homemade paddle strop with 0.5 microm chromium oxide and 1.8 micron boron carbide.

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I made a bench hone with a 3x12" piece of leather I got from Tony on a machine-flattened piece of marble tile, using a contact cement. Granite's good too. Using a 0.5 micron Chromium Oxide abrasive powder (Hand American) mixed with Tony's strop dressing. It's still in the testing stage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Geoff

Hello All,

I have been wet shaving with a DE for a while now and am looking to get a straight.

I plan on purchasing a pre-honed razor and was wondering how long it would stay keen using a pasted paddle strop.

I had the:
Heirloom Combination, Vintage Style 4 Sided Paddle Strop

In mind with 3.0, 1, 0.5 micron pastes; leaving the 4th side red latigo for honing.

Will the paddle strop be acceptable for pre-shave stroping or would I be better off with a hanging strop in addition?

If purchasing a hanging strop and norton 4k/8k makes more sense I can certainly go that route too; just trying to find the best equipment to start with.

Thanks!
-Geoff

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It depends on what you're planning to do. If all you want to do is maintain your razors, the pated strop should be fine. But if you plan on restoring Ebay razors, you'll need the Norton 4/8. If you get the Norton, I would add a two sided paddle with 1 or .6 paste and plain leather.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by honedright

Just for your consideration, I don't use any pastes, just a plain hanging strop, and can go for a year or longer without rehoning. I use the same razor everyday and stropping keeps it HHT keen. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't use paste if you want, I just think it's more technique than anything else.

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!!!!

You're saying you can get 365 or more shaves between honings?

Make sure you use a really flat surface for your bench hones. Machine-flattened piece of marble or granite would be an excellent option because it's perfectly flat and looks good. Your other option would be MDS and it's DIRT-cheap.

Ceramic tiles would NOT work for this application. Read up on the bench-hone thread that I started as lots of skilled people chimed in with excellent advice that helped me come up with something that looks like it will work and look good while at it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by honedright

Just for your consideration, I don't use any pastes, just a plain hanging strop, and can go for a year or longer without rehoning. I use the same razor everyday and stropping keeps it HHT keen. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't use paste if you want, I just think it's more technique than anything else.

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Are you saying you use only a strop and don't even refresh the edge with a hone or pasted strop for 365 shaves?

One a closely related subject:

How often does the paste itself need to be refreshed?

Also, if for any reason one wanted to change the paste used on a paddle strop, is that possible? Or are you pretty much stuck with what you start with on a peice of leather. (I can imagine that trying to go to a finer grit at least would be problematic).

-Mo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moses

One a closely related subject:

How often does the paste itself need to be refreshed?

Also, if for any reason one wanted to change the paste used on a paddle strop, is that possible? Or are you pretty much stuck with what you start with on a peice of leather. (I can imagine that trying to go to a finer grit at least would be problematic).

-Mo

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Time to refreshing paste varies a lot. It depends on how much you use it (of course), but also how you apply it and how you strop.

You can change the paste on a strop. To do that you need to clean it with the handcleaner that mechanics use. I think it's called Goop. Once the leather is clean, let it dry, and you can apply any paste you want.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moses

How often does the paste itself need to be refreshed?

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Mo,
As I'm fairly new with using abrasive pastes, I recently asked the same question and the answer I got was "Until you notice that the sharpening effect is significantly reduced. The strop can turn black and still not need a re-application of paste."

When I sharpened all of my new razors for sale on pasted strops only (9.0 to 0.25 micron) I refreshed my paddles with new paste once every month and a half on average. I was doing my own razors, maybe 1 or 2 a week and anywhere from 6 to 10 customer razors a week on the same paddles. That is a lot of stropping before repasting.

Now that I am only doing my own razors, a rotation of 14 pieces I can't remember the last time I applied pastes. I think it was early summer.

Diamond abrasive will keep cutting for a long time.

How do you guys do with the boron and chromium oxide pastes as far as longevity?

Thanks,
Tony

how can you know it's time to re-apply paste, does it give a discolourisation or does it draw differently? :|

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Miller

How do you guys do with the boron and chromium oxide pastes as far as longevity?

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Probably about the same. I've never had to replace mine, but I don't have the number of razors you do. But I got my CO paddle back in April and have used it as the final honing step on all my razors in my newbie acquisition rush since then, and for refreshing as well, and it's still going strong. I recently made a new CO paddle, but that was because I wanted CO on a fairly hard wood instead of leather. The old one has been black for a long time and still going strong.

As for the BC, it's black when new :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moses

Also, if for any reason one wanted to change the paste used on a paddle strop, is that possible?

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You can change abrasives - this is one of the nice things about the paddle strop, not only is it inexpensive to get, but it's inexpensive to experiment with new abrasives.

For leather-covered strops, you just need to wash off the old abrasive with saddle soap, Joe Lerch mentioned goop and that probably works just as well if you can't get saddle soap. If you're switching from a coarse to a fine abrasive you'll want to wash it several times to make really sure you've got the old stuff out. I switched one side of my tony miller wide paddle from 3 micron diamond to .5 micron diamond without incident.

For wood-faced strops I'm not sure that you can wash the abrasives out without swelling the wood and causing problems. I would suspect that the best way to switch would be to lap the wood on a lapping plate with some dry 600+ grit sandpaper until the old grit was gone.

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Originally Posted by dylandog

!!!!

You're saying you can get 365 or more shaves between honings?

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Yes! I've found that once I've set up the razor edge with the hone initially, I only need to strop the razor to keep it shaving sharp. I rarely go back to the hone if ever. And I've never used a pasted strop. The problem with it is my honing technique tends to get very rusty!

This is for real? And you've gone through puberty and everything?

You ought to be selling dvd's explaining that technique of yours.

So what happens, somewhere between 365 and 400 shaves it starts to pull?

If the razor did start to pull, and stropping didn't cure it, then of course I'd re-hone. But that hasn't happened as long as I can remember.

As far as going through "puberty", isn't that somewhere in New Mexico? I think I've been through there...once.....long ago.....

Why'd you ask, you from there?

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Originally Posted by honedright

Why'd you ask, you from there?

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I got waylaid there for a spell in my teens. Didn't stay long, but it left a big impression. Funny thing – at the time all I could think about was getting out. Now I wouldn't mind going back a while, visit the old haunts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dylandog

I got waylaid there for a spell in my teens. Didn't stay long, but it left a big impression...

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Yes, as I remember, it was a hair-raising experience for me...

No plans on going back though.