Thread: hone then paste

Originally Posted by gary haywood

I still find that paste can and does add smoothness and can squeeze that bit more keeness out of a razor in most cases.

My question is what differance do you guys find paste makes and why you use paste or why you would rather not use paste.

Hey Gary,

I think your above statement pretty much sums it up for me. Knowing that you are a coti enthusiast, which is also my weapon of choice, I can say that I have shaved directly off the coti and have been pleasantly surprised. And then sometimes I'll give a razor a few swipes of chrome and be more than happy.

YMMV of course, but in this shaver/honer's opinion there is nothing wrong with a bit of paste to finish 'er off.

Different swipes for different types, eh?

Originally Posted by Ryan82

Hey Gary,

I think your above statement pretty much sums it up for me. Knowing that you are a coti enthusiast, which is also my weapon of choice, I can say that I have shaved directly off the coti and have been pleasantly surprised. And then sometimes I'll give a razor a few swipes of chrome and be more than happy.

YMMV of course, but in this shaver/honer's opinion there is nothing wrong with a bit of paste to finish 'er off.

Different swipes for different types, eh?

I just shaved with two razors one TI and one DA the da was honed totaly on coti and the TI coti plus issards then cro ox i shaved oposite sides of face and i have to say they both shaved as well the DA did feel slightly smoother than the TI i will rehone TI on just coti and see if there is a differance i'm sure its just the due to differant razors and The new TI is slightly harder steel maybe. But like your self its handy to have the option and i have to say i never noticed my shaves not lasting as long when they have been slightly pasted .

and my techniques are still highly changeable, but at the moment I'm using a dozen strokes on 1 mic diamond paste then 0.5 Crox after finishing on a coti. Many of my blades are older, with less than perfectly straight edges. I prefer to keep these "irregualities" -- I think they contribute to the character of the blade -- rather than breadknife or hone the edge to perfect straightness. When I'm through, the blade must easily cut dry hair all along the edge, but I feel some parts of the edge may still be more refined than others. Using pastes, I think, gets into every part of the bevel, since there is some "give" on the strop and the medium being used. Anyway, this is what I've been doing on the past ten or so blades, and they've all shaved well. Hope this is clear.

Well Gary you know my take on all this
If the shave off the Coti is not smooth enough I will use Crox about 10 laps on the hanging strop (Both from your good self of course) I am a great believer in the fact that paste will not make a bad edge good, it will however squeeze just that almost indefinable extra keeness or smoothness from an allready good edge.
If my edge is not sharp enough off the hone I will not waste my time with paste, its a much better idea IMHO to go back to the stone and do it right to begin with.

Originally Posted by tat2Ralfy

Well Gary you know my take on all this
If the shave off the Coti is not smooth enough I will use Crox about 10 laps on the hanging strop (Both from your good self of course) I am a great believer in the fact that paste will not make a bad edge good, it will however squeeze just that almost indefinable extra keeness or smoothness from an allready good edge.
If my edge is not sharp enough off the hone I will not waste my time with paste, its a much better idea IMHO to go back to the stone and do it right to begin with.

I shaved with both TI and DA as i said the shave of coticule was great i added some paste agian to an already shave ready blades. Now i felt the shave was a little smoother and around my tash wipped it off for me the paste does improve the shave but like you say it will not make up for a under honed razor thats why i like to shave straight of my hone first.

The improvmant for me is smoother still and the razor seems to just glide alot more. what differance do you find ralfy after hitting the cr.ox?

I no bart can hit the same level of coti i can vouch for that as i have tryed his razor honing and its the best edge i have had from a honemeister my razor passes hht on babys head and silently.

I don't know and wish someone could explain what past gives to you stone doesn't?
i don't use any pastes and my razor has enough sharpness and smoothness.

The paste for me gives the shave a bit more smoothness, as in more glide, its hard to define but I would say its a tiny tiny bit sharper and a bit more than tiny tiny bit smoother, my honing skills are vastly better than when I started but I cant produce an edge like Bart does. my hht (not that its a true goal for reasons that I wont go into here) is just "o.k" off the stone, with the paste I can pass it a piece of **** everytime.
I have never had a shave as light and close straight off the stone as I have with Barts honing, IMHO he has truly mastered it.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

I don't know and wish someone could explain what past gives to you stone doesn't?
i don't use any pastes and my razor has enough sharpness and smoothness.

I don't see any improvement over my good work on stones either, but sometimes I've gotten edges in that could be improved on pastes. I could improve them on the stones too, but I use the pastes because I'm not 100% sure of whether tape was used on some and the difference in honing technique make me nervous of trying to do touch ups of someone else's edges... I use paste in those cases.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

I don't know and wish someone could explain what past gives to you stone doesn't?
i don't use any pastes and my razor has enough sharpness and smoothness.

may be not every ones as experianced as you i no lynn uses paste well in the honing dvd he did and the one on utube actualy i think he highly recomends diamond spray 0.5 i'm sure he says it adds a little glide i find it adds more glide also and a lot of hone meisters do use it for what ever reason differant people differant methods. the previous owner of my barbershop and his dad used rouge back in the days. i find paste can defanatly add extra keeness/smoothness beyond my honing and i think many people do find the same.

Originally Posted by gary haywood

may be not every ones as experianced as you i no lynn uses paste well in the honing dvd he did and the one on utube actualy i think he highly recomends diamond spray 0.5 i'm sure he says it adds a little glide i find it adds more glide also and a lot of hone meisters do use it for what ever reason differant people differant methods. the previous owner of my barbershop and his dad used rouge back in the days. i find paste can defanatly add extra keeness/smoothness beyond my honing and i think many people do find the same.

Not only that but everyones face and stubble is different, a soft beard and tough skin will respond very differently to baby skin and stubble like Desperate Dans..lol