Quote Originally Posted by JimmyHAD View Post
I have felt the same way about using pastes. I want to get there on the hones. I have only found two blades that really required pastes for me to get up to speed and that was an ATS 34 Ellis and a TI Damascus.

Other then those two I have used the method described by dylandog above of only resorting to pastes after the first pass is not up to my expectations. Then I do either 10 passes on chrom ox or 0.05 diamond spray on felt. Following the shave it is back to the hones with it.

At the same time there is a part of me that feels that pastes are just another vehicle for getting the razor up to the full potential and there is nothing wrong with using it. I suspect that if I ever get to the ultimate level of skill with my hones that using pastes routinely won't have me feeling like I am using a crutch to make up for a lack of skill.

I imagine most people don't have a philosophical debate going on in their head about whether is is alright to use pastes or not. It is just another vehicle to get a razor shaving sharp. Lynn calls this a sport and that is how I feel about it too. I guess some of us neophytes feel as if using pastes is equivalent to a ballplayer using steroids. Intellectually I know that isn't so but emotionally I feel that it is.



Couldn't agree more!



Kristoffer