Originally Posted by
razorguy
Scales look wonderful for sure.
Why are you paying so much attention on pastes? You seem to like pastes quite a lot but, like I wrote, if you make an excessive use of them the blade will become overhoned and the blade will not cut like it should.
So, my advice is:
1) take a break from pastes: the more you use them the worse for your razor's edge
2) don't be obsessed to have a lot of them: a good quality chromium oxide paste is all you need
3) pay scrupulous attention on your stropping technique: this makes a big difference both for razor's life and quality of shaving
4) don't use pastes on a regular basis. Use a chromium oxide paste only when the razor starts pulling
5) in case the razors pulls after having passed it on chromium oxide, consider honing it with a fine grit hone (natural or synthetic) and then a good strop on chromium oxide (say, from 5 to 10 passes)
6) strop and stropping are more important than pastes
You should also consider many straight razor users do not advise the use of pastes as they are considered a "sort of advanced technique". Stropping is (almost) everything.