Originally Posted by
DireStraights
Depends on if it's pigment powder or what. I use water or oil depending.
I stopped using pastes though as it prevents using a finishing hone for touch ups. You can make a razor last longer before honing, but then when you do go to stones you have to do a full bevel set, whereas I can keep a razor going indefinitely by touching up on a finisher when it starts to tug instead of pastes.
Of course you need a good finisher to be able to do that, which for cost reasons makes paste totally acceptable for short term solutions.