Thread: Strops: balsa or leather?

I see many guys here use a paddle balsa strop. I never see before a balasa strop, so, can you tell me the differece between balsa and leather?

By

By,

As far as I know, balsa is only for use with pastes. Leather paddle strops can be used for either regular daily stropping or resharpening with pastes.

On balsa strops, my impression is that the grit embeds more deeply. Less of the paste's cutting grains are exposed, so the paddle removes metal more slowly.

With leather, the grit is also embedded but not as deeply. Leather paddles cut quicker.

If I was using wood, I might do 30 to 50 laps with a .5 micron diamond paste. With leather I would do 10 to 20.

Wooden paddles seem to leave a smoother edge, at least with diamond paste.

Josh

Hello Men
I use a 3.5x12 inch oak paddle strop covered on both sides with a thin vennere of Balsa aproximatley 1/8 inch thick.
on one side it is pasted with 1.0 diamond paste and the other is 0.5 diamond paste.
To thouch up my razors or to finish a newley honed razor, I do a 10-30,8-24,6-18,4-12,3-9,2-6,1-3, pyramid. with this method my razors are very sharp and maintain an excellent shaving edge. if anyone is interested, Iwill make you strop as seen below. Pm me for details.
Mike

Mike,

This paste pyramid is interesting. What is the highest grit stone you use before going to the paddle strop?

Josh

Josh.
I do a pyramid on the 4/8 norton then go to the paddles
either an aggressive or and almost keen series.
mike