Thread: finishing paste

I no most people use ch.5 oxide after finishing on there final hone. does any one use red dovo paste and would it be ok to use after final hone for example coticule. I have diamond paste and ch.5 as well as now red dovo on a full size strop and i no dovo red is rated between 2-4 micron but i have to say it feels smoother than my .5 diamond paste when passing razor over the red the red is to be used for a very mild dulling edge basicly dovo say for slight touch up i have heard of a company actualy using red dovo after the yellow coticule when used with slurry i for get the name. any one tryed this method.

In the case of paste making a razor more harsh what should i do any advice would be greatful i was thinking maybe drop back onto yellow coticule in those situations would that work.

Dovo red paste proves that "smoothness" is very closely related to sharpness. One of the easiest ways to make a razor shaveready is to hone it on a Coticule with milky slurry till the keenness maxes out and next optimize the keenness on Dovo red paste. A reknowned razor store in Antwerp, Belgium uses that method. The name of the store is "De Koordenwinkel". When I started out, I have shaved with such edges. The shaving confort is very good. But I had longevity issues with those edges, and their inherent convexity made it difficult to do touch-ups with good consistent success. I never used diamond pastes for honing razors so I can't comment on that, but it's often reported "harsher" than most other abrasive compounds.

Best regards,
Bart.

A couple of years ago when I was using a Coticule for my final stone before pasting, I experimented with about 50 razors using some of the red paste on the back of a strop. Actually it is funny as I just ran into that strop the other day and the back still has the red paste on it. I think about 5 of them ended up not having to go back to the hone. I found it pretty inconsistent. I tried it on a bunch of razors just to see if it would refresh on a more consistent basis and it did not. It will work, but not near as consistent as chromium oxide or diamond paste or spray in my opinion.

Have fun,

Lynn

I have read that many people find the diamond paste edge way too harsh for shaving.

What is your current strop setup? If I read correctly, you have the .5 diamond, .5 CrO and now red dovo paste. Is this a paddle strop, or different strops?

bart if i was to do touch up with coticule slurry i supose that woudlreset beve.l And then i could go to red paste again?i i no yellow with slurry does'nt give ultimate edge so may be i thought bbw/ yellow water and then red only if needed would work.

Originally Posted by Bart

Dovo red paste proves that "smoothness" is very closely related to sharpness. One of the easiest ways to make a razor shaveready is to hone it on a Coticule with milky slurry till the keenness maxes out and next optimize the keenness on Dovo red paste. A reknowned razor store in Antwerp, Belgium uses that method. The name of the store is "De Koordenwinkel". When I started out, I have shaved with such edges. The shaving confort is very good. But I had longevity issues with those edges, and their inherent convexity made it difficult to do touch-ups with good consistent success. I never used diamond pastes for honing razors so I can't comment on that, but it's often reported "harsher" than most other abrasive compounds.

Best regards,
Bart.

Bart how many laps on strop are you talking aprox that you would of regularly used on red dovo. I would of thought 25?

Originally Posted by dkapp

I have read that many people find the diamond paste edge way too harsh for shaving.

What is your current strop setup? If I read correctly, you have the .5 diamond, .5 CrO and now red dovo paste. Is this a paddle strop, or different strops?

I have tm paddle with 1.0 /0.5/ .5 chr and normal litigo full sized strop seperarte with red. I don't and hav'nt found it harsh apart from on one razor since i've used yellow and blue belgium hones they leave an edge that smooth but some times not as ultra sharp as i'd like the paste should help keeness. I think once you get used to a coticule egde its so gentle and smooth maybe paste start to feel more harsh so maybe finish on paste then go back to coti would be a nice egde i will try.

Originally Posted by gary haywood

bart if i was to do touch up with coticule slurry i supose that woudlreset beve.l And then i could go to red paste again?i i no yellow with slurry does'nt give ultimate edge so may be i thought bbw/ yellow water and then red only if needed would work.

I would not call the use of a Coticule with slurry "a touch up". In the method I described in my previous post, the Coticule with slurry serves to reestablish flat bevel panes. Next, those are convexed on the red paste. (By the way, a well adjusted loom strop is the way to go for this kind of convex honing). Once the edge is convex shaped, no further work on flat hones is possible, since the very edge can not touch the surface of a hone.
Dovo red paste is comparable to an 8K hone, but still, the convexity is rather significant.
As I see it, once you take the convex route, you need to stay on it.
At the same time, this completely rules out the use of a hone for final edge finishing, including the Coticule with water, which remains my personal Excalibur of edges. Yet another reason why I am not all that fond of convex, pasted edges.

Originally Posted by gary haywood

Bart how many laps on strop are you talking aprox that you would of regularly used on red dovo. I would of thought 25?

It's been a very long time since I cleaned the red paste off my loom strop, and stopped honing on pastes. If I remember well, I used to do in between 30 and 50 laps on the red pasted loom strop, adjusted at a fairly taut setting. I also remember that those edges didn't last longer than a couple of shaves, and that I had to increase the slack in the loom strop with every touch-up.

If you can manage to get your razor keen enough on hones, my advice is to also touch-up on hones.
I do use CrO sometimes, but only on a completely taut loom strop, and no more than 5-10 laps. Tests with honing after that has revealed that the introduced convexity is minimal enough to not pose a problem for touching up on the Coticule with water, when that becomes immanent. If you touch up at the very first signs of edge deterioration, the Coticule with water works really well.

Bart.