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I have never used a psted/sprayed strop before. Currently my finishing stone is a Shapton GS 16k. I like the edge that comes off there but I figured I would like to try a pasted/sprayed strop. I was looking at the 0.5 diamond spray from SRD and was wondering if this is a good choice or if i should go finer. Also what is a good medium to put these on. I read somewhere in the wiki that you can paste one side of a fabric strop and use the other. True?
The .5 Diamond spray on Hard Felt is a great choice for final finishing step. As far as treating the back side of your fabric strop.....I guess you could do it, but I don't think it would be very easy to put it to use without putting your strop through some gyrations. If you have a second strop I would suggest spraying one of the two fabric sides so you would have one clean and one sprayed fabric strops. There are better solutions, but it would involve getting some new stuff...not that that's a bad thing.
You can get a single sided or double sided paddle strop at Lee Valley for less than $30. I'm not sure how they'd work with diamond paste but I have one with CrOx and it works great :)
For a long time (well, since I started, which was about 3 years ago), I never used anything but a leather strop. I have tried the .5 micron diamond on hard wool felt when I visited Lynn on two occasions, and it really does give a nice edge. I also just recently tried chrome ox on the SRD webbing, and I really liked that too. Is any one better than the others? I don't think there is any objective answer to that, but different people will have their thoughts.
My advice is try to play a bit before you buy to see what you like. Then again, none of that stuff is particularly expensive, so you can probably buy and try a few setups. Just remember, the medium you paste AND the past both play a role in the result.
8Ball,
Personally I'd go with chrome ox as diamond seems to be love-it-or-hate-it. I'm not a huge fan of diamond spray, I find it can feel overly harsh (which is a common complaint for those who are not fans, and some find it irritates their skin). I've never heard anyone really complain about chome, so you can't go wrong there. Every straight shaver should have some in their arsenal :)