Pasted Strop and Water Stone Pyramid.

I'm not sure if this is a new idea or not, but I'd like to bring it up.

After getting my razor to a decent level or sharpness with a 4000 / 8000x japanese water stone I tried a pyramid idea with the lightly pasted strop and the 8000 grit stone. Between each, I would wipe of the worst of the water

10 passes @ 8000 grit & 20 passes on the pasted strop
08 passes @ 8000 grit & 20 passes on the pasted strop
06 passes @ 8000 grit & 20 passes on the pasted strop
04 passes @ 8000 grit & 20 passes on the pasted strop
02 passes @ 8000 grit & 20 passes on the pasted strop

20 passes on a hanging strop.

This gave the best edge that I've made (but there is room for improvement)

Any thoughts.

Mark

What is the strop pasted with?

I was wondering the same thing, it seems like a lot of unnecessary strokes!

I actually did a similar experiment a little while ago and posted a thread about it. Basically, I did Lynn's pyramid from his video with a Little Devil barber hone (~ 4k-6k) and a TM pasted paddle with the 3 micron diamond paste as my 8k. I then finished it with the 1 micron diamond and .5 micron chromium oxide paste. Seemed to work really well for me. I may have also done a few laps on another finer barber hone as well.

The number of laps on the 8K indicates a need to go back to either a 4K or a 6K for 25 laps. Also increase your stropping from 20 up to 50.

You might try a couple of 1-3 progressions on the 4K/8K and then only 10 strokes on the .5 and see how close you are. If not quite there, 5 on the 8K and again only 10 on the .5 paste.

Lynn

Fifty complete passes. Make the count one hundred. You should see a difference.