Thread: Does Paste Ruin the Bevel?

This is directly from the FAQ:

"When a blade is honed on a strop loaded with some sort of abrasive compound, the cutting bevel looses its triangular shape and becomes arc-shaped (or "convexed")...without resetting the bevel first, one cannot touch up a pasted razor with a hone."

If this is true, then why should I use a paste? I'm simply costing myself more in the long term, correct?

A senior member who has done a tremendous amount of experimenting with stropping with and without paste, mparker762, found that paste did not degrade the edge even if used over an extended period of time. YMMV. Here is one post he made on the topic and here is another of interest.

Another experiment:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...xperiment.html

As you can see there are differing opinions, which is why the Forum is always a better source than the Wiki or Faq sheets,,,
Ideas change and are always flowing at this hobby, the Wiki etc: are good for fast info, and a great starting point....
It is never a good idea to write a statement in stone like that one in Razordom....

Edit: The Faq has been updated

You should be able to paste the edge for a long time, but if you ding your razor then you must rehone to get out any chips to the edge.

Originally Posted by goaT

This is directly from the FAQ:

"When a blade is honed on a strop loaded with some sort of abrasive compound, the cutting bevel looses its triangular shape and becomes arc-shaped (or "convexed")...without resetting the bevel first, one cannot touch up a pasted razor with a hone."

If this is true, then why should I use a paste? I'm simply costing myself more in the long term, correct?

This is General question.
if you know what are you doing i don't think so.
If you are touching up already shave ready blade with 2.5 red paste then answer will be yes . your edge will get destroyed.
if you are using chro2 then you won't damage the edge.
This is why when you use paste you will need to know what grit and what condition your blade is.
gl

Also, I think if you use a rigid bench type strop as opposed to a hanging strop you can use the pasted strop method longer before having to go to the hone.

I have lately been shying away from pastes and getting a better shave. The only thing I am using now is .5 micron diamond spray on the poly web which is on the back of my English Bridle strop. 25/50 after each shave seems to be doing the trick for me......

Spray / paste are the same thing to me - anything that's not a hone

I rely on a paddle strop and diamond sprayed felt to maintain the sharpness of my razors for now.

Originally Posted by goaT

This is directly from the FAQ:

"When a blade is honed on a strop loaded with some sort of abrasive compound, the cutting bevel looses its triangular shape and becomes arc-shaped (or "convexed")...without resetting the bevel first, one cannot touch up a pasted razor with a hone."

If this is true, then why should I use a paste? I'm simply costing myself more in the long term, correct?

I've never used paste of any kind on (hard or impossible to find it here) so i cannot say if they are good or not from my personal experience, but for what i've read is that so many people use them so they cannot be bad if used properly.