Thread: Honing With Pastes Only?

Is there any reason, as long as the edge is not damaged, that you could not hone with a progression of different diamond/Chromium Oxide/Dovo pastes?

reading, this just seems like an easier/simpler way for me to keep my razors sharp until i get brave enough to try stones.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Should i just "man up" and get some stones, since i probably will eventually anyway?

I think honing with pastes only is completely possible, as long as you have the proper progression. But, since you're always sharping with spine leading strokes, you run the risk of creating a slightly convex bevel. This would depend entirely on the paste medium used, and the amount of give it has. If you use pastes on leather for the entire progression, I think you would round the edge since it has a bit of give to it (i.e. it's soft).

I know balsa is used for diamond pastes and chromium oxide, but I've only read referrence to it with fine pastes for finishing, not for coarser grit pastes. I don't see why it wouldn't work for coarser grits as well, but I haven't heard about it, so many others will comment on that!

I personally prefer honing with stones as opposed to with pasted strops, since I don't think the pasted-honed edge would be as durable. But that's just a personal preferrence.

So to get back to your initial question, yes I think it's totally possible to hone entirely with pastes. But I think you'll find you'll want to master the hones eventually.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

I think honing with pastes only is completely possible, as long as you have the proper progression. But, since you're always sharping with spine leading strokes, you run the risk of creating a slightly convex bevel. This would depend entirely on the paste medium used, and the amount of give it has. If you use pastes on leather for the entire progression, I think you would round the edge since it has a bit of give to it (i.e. it's soft).

I know balsa is used for diamond pastes and chromium oxide, but I've only read referrence to it with fine pastes for finishing, not for coarser grit pastes. I don't see why it wouldn't work for coarser grits as well, but I haven't heard about it, so many others will comment on that!

I personally prefer honing with stones as opposed to with pasted strops, since I don't think the pasted-honed edge would be as durable. But that's just a personal preferrence.

So to get back to your initial question, yes I think it's totally possible to hone entirely with pastes. But I think you'll find you'll want to master the hones eventually.

What I was thinking in my head was, 3 balsa strops. 3m, 1m, .5m, maybe .25...

That sounds like a good progression. 3 micron paste is roughly equivalent to an 8000 grit hone. This is ok for touching an edge up, but not for any major work. If all you're doing is touching up an already shave-ready, but a little dull, blade, then this should work just fine.

Are you planning on doing any bevel setting or major sharpening? I just checked out the classicshaving site, and they have a 9 micron paste....I just referred to a micron-grit conversion table, and it says 9 micron is about 1800 grit. So that's good for bevel creation.

I wonder if there's a 6 micron paste....cause jumping from 9 micron to 3 micron is a big jump...like going from 1800 grit to 8000....

Of course none of this matters if all you plan on doing is maintaining an edge..I'm just rambling....

There is a thread on here that Bruno was discussing, just this, I can't find it at the moment but it is worth the read....

I will link it if I can

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

That sounds like a good progression. 3 micron paste is roughly equivalent to an 8000 grit hone. This is ok for touching an edge up, but not for any major work. If all you're doing is touching up an already shave-ready, but a little dull, blade, then this should work just fine.

Are you planning on doing any bevel setting or major sharpening? I just checked out the classicshaving site, and they have a 9 micron paste....I just referred to a micron-grit conversion table, and it says 9 micron is about 1800 grit. So that's good for bevel creation.

I wonder if there's a 6 micron paste....cause jumping from 9 micron to 3 micron is a big jump...like going from 1800 grit to 8000....

Of course none of this matters if all you plan on doing is maintaining an edge..I'm just rambling....

The dovo paste comes(Razor Strops, Hones, and Accessories) comes in the following and is only 4.99 a tube. I ordered some .50 Chromium today from the classifieds. What is 6, around a 4k then?

Green Sharpening Paste is the coarsest with a particle size averaging 6 microns and should be used on a very dull edge.

Red Sharpening Paste is less coarse with a particle size of 2-4 microns and will refresh a mildly dull edge.

Yellow Paste has no sharpening qualities and is used as a leather strop conditioner on your "everyday use" strop.

White Paste is used as an edge polish on the LINEN STROP ONLY!

It seems that 6 micron is about a 4000....maybe slightly coarser. 5 micron is 4500 grit and 7 micron is 2800....it doesn't give 6 micron! But it's somewhere in between 2800 and 4500....so about a 4000

Click here

This is a link for a site that sells what you are looking for. The seller recommends using a substrate like MDF or maple. His stuff is also water based.

Here is a grit conversion chart.

Here is another

Yes you can do this. It works better if you have a firm substrate for the pastes to minimize ovalling the bevel, and your balsa strops should work pretty well in that regard. I prefer a somewhat harder substrate myself (poplar or vellum) but balsa should be pretty good. The only problem is that if you have to do any major work the paste will clog up pretty quickly.

You've gotten some good stuff to go with. I have only used pastes as an adjunct to honing with stones so I would say get a Norton starter set but that is my prejudice. Here is some from the Wiki that may be of help.