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I'm thinking of using some green paste on my razor. Whats the best way to do this? I can use the backside of my strop -- rough leather. I can get another smooth leather strop and use that. Not sure about wood blocks, but I guess that's a possibility. I can also look for a barber's hone.
What's the best way to take your razor just one step beyond a plain strop?
Thanks.
I prefer my paste on canvas it goes on better in my opinion i've been using TI pate rasoir its great sharpening paste and will keep your razor sharp for quite a while. Eventualy you will need a hone i use a coticule to rehone then pate . Which green paste are you thinking of using ?
I assume your green paste is 0.5m CrOx?
Barber hones are lower grit (usually) than the pastes. Barber hones seem to be around 10k grit, but the 0.5m CrOx is around 30k grit so it is much finer.
Personally what I would do is buy a piece of 5 ply or something around half an inch thick, as long as its flat! Then take an old pair of jeans and coat the piece of wood with denim. Then put the green paste on that and you have yourself a pasted paddle strop! You could even coat both sides with denim and have different pastes on each side. Maybe green paste on one side and 0.25m diamond spray on the other?
I have a nice coat of CO powder on the rough leather backside of my strop. I don't think it is rough enough to mess up the edge (at least I haven't had any trouble), and I feel like the extra draw from the texture makes it act about like a pair of jeans.
A swaty barber's hone is perfect for touch ups, you can even stick it in your pocket when you travel and not have to worry about dragging around paddles with your hanging strop.
I've tried paddle strops with diamond paste and a couple of different barber hones, but the best option I have found so far is a good old Swaty. I use an old broken Swaty that is missing about one inch, but this works fantastically.
+ 1 on using a barber hone. If you want to go conservatively with minimal investment, you might try stropping on newspaper first. I tried that last evening with a razor that had been out of rotation for a while. Did 30 laps on newspaper, then stropped on web and latigo. Great result.
Great ideas! Anyone know how fine a Swaty is? I have a bid on one, but not sure of condition yet.