Thread: Managing without pastes

I have come to rely on the HHT with my hair ( I have very thin hair on my head.)When a razor pass this test all along the edge, it will allmost allways give a superb shave.However, sometimes I have a very difficult time achiving this without the use of pastes.If am in the last phase of a honing process, I have never experienced that 20 laps of linnen with chrom.ox didn't push the edge to pass my test.
I rely try to avoid using paste tough.Not because I don't recognise them as a tool, but mainly because I think it is essential to avoid them if you have any aspirations to become better at honing.And I sertainly have!

How about you guys, are you using pastes unless you really have to?


Kristoffer

My advice to anyone facing this question is this:

After any honing session, always do your first shave (or at least the first pass of your first shave) without benefit of pastes. Then if needed do a few strokes on the chrome oxide.

This way you can monitor your improvement on the stones, without sacrificing comfortable shaves.

Then when you achieve honemeister-esque skills, and there's no question you're maxing out your stones' potential, you can decide if you prefer the edge off stones or off chrome oxide.

Plenty of top honemeisters, including Randy and Lynn, use chrome oxide. Others find that the ideal edge comes from stones alone. There are a number of factors involved, including beard and skin type and just plain old preference. Skill on the stones is only one factor, and the system I've described allows you to isolate it.

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.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

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

Originally Posted by KristofferBodvin

[/u] Couldn't agree more! Kristoffer

As my wife used to say ......... before the divorce ....... "Great minds think alike."

I'm having partial success without pastes. Some razors are good enough (though I still feel I can do better) and others fall far short of shave ready, and I will resort to pastes. But I am determined, like a bloody-minded fool, to be able to avoid pastes for all of my blades eventually.

My 2 cents are this....
I think your confusing Sharp and Smooth...
Sharp: is a definable limit to that particular edge, it can only get so sharp off the hones... Once you can reach that limit and know you reached that limit "Your There" you can hone a razor... By the way you should be "there" at the 4k stage... (not to be confused with using the Pyramid method)

Smooth is everything after Sharp

That my story and I am sticking to it...