Thread: Recommend a very fine barber's hone?

Originally Posted by PapaBull

Pasted strops are very effective. A razor that is honed properly, however, will not be improved by a pasted strop.

I think this has been disproven in practice and you can even do it yourself. I have been able to improve razors finished by honemeisters with a .25 paste.

As an example, Classic Shaving points out that with a .25 paste a razor can be made too sharp. Each finer grit you use makes the microserrations (fin) finer. There has to be a limit, however, resulting from the crystalline structure of the steel. But it would appear to be past 100K.

You can't argue that finer hones like a 12K don't improve an edge. Why would you think that it stops abruptly. It's surely continuous. The finest stone you can get is 30K. A .5 paste is 50K and .25 is 100K. It's documented that edge sharpness can be improved with both after typical correct honing. The one reservation I would have is that there's such a big jump from 12K or 15K to a .5 paste, so you need to do a lot of work to see the effect of even .5 paste.

Before we can reach these kinds of conclusions a lot of work has to be done studying the effect of finer pastes on a well-honed edge. Even at 200x you can see that fine pastes smooth out the edge left by proper honing. It needs to be determined whether an edge that's that much sharper makes a difference. Commentary about the finer pastes seems to indicate it does.

Hello Robert,

I hope you don't mind but I do have to diagree with you based upon my own limited personal experience. The 0.5 and 0.25 abrasive pastes have both made a tangible difference in my razores edges.

I do agree with you that the pasted paddle strops can "mask" a poorly developed edge or one with some flaws as you mentioned. The basic step of analyzing the edge before you begin honing is probably overlooked by a lot of people and that includes me every once in a while.

Is it possible to obtain a really good edge without the abrasive pastes?
Yes! But the abrasive pastes do make it sharper.
Are we using the abrasive pastes as a crutch? Probably.
Each of us will develop our own method and tools to achieve our desired goal. Thats part of the fun of this. There is more than one way to skin this face, er... cat.

( now I have to try that balsa wood abrasive pasted strop.... maybe with some graphite this time)

Originally Posted by PapaBull

Pasted strops are very effective. A razor that is honed properly, however, will not be improved by a pasted strop. A well honed razor and stropped razor is as fine an edge as one can have, in my opinion and is almost certain to have a better, more consistent edge, give a cleaner, more comfortable shave and stay sharp longer.

There's a logical reason behind this. I wouldn't just say that based on an arbitrary judgement call.

What I've concluded is that strops will make it possible to put a shavable edge on a razor that hasn't been properly honed. If the edge isn't "just right", the pasted strop will put some whiteout on the mistake by keeping the flaws from being particularly noticable while shaving. Examples would be sharpening areas of the edge that have micro-pits or never got the full "v" edge beveled and sharpened, leaving areas flat. These will be "rounded" and then re-beveled at a more obtuse angle by the stropping with the paste. Obtuse angles don't cut as well and, although many people think that more obtuse bevels stay sharper longer, actually the opposite has proven to be true (within reason).