Thread: Stainless steel and pasted strops?

I just finished touching up a Dovo SS razor. It's now very sharp and gave me
an extremely close shave. However, it was not particularly smooth: no pulling or
dragging, but just kinda rough feeling.

So, I stropped the heck out of it, on linen and latigo, which resulted in improvement.
Then I stropped some more, but it seems to have hit a wall.

I was contemplating using a CeOx pasted strop next, but I seem to recall reading
somewhere that stainless steel does not respond too well to pastes.

Is that correct? Any suggestions?

My highest grit stone is a Naniwa 12K. I also have a 3-line Swaty and a
translucent arkansas stone. Plus the CeOx pasted strop. Those are the
limits of my toolkit.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Paul

I haven't experienced any problems using pastes or sprays with my SS razors. I would give your razor 5 or 10 passes on the pasted strop and see how you like it. Like many things, less may be more, so be careful not to use pressure on the strop and don't overdo the number of passes.

If you really don't like the results from your pasted strop you can always hit the stone for a few passes and start over, but I really don't see why it won't work.

PaulKidd,

I have two (2) Dovo EnVogue stainless razors, and use a CrOx powdered hard-leather paddle for the weekly touch-ups with great success

The Dovo stainless blades, for me at least, feel a little 'scritchy' on the face, but shave superbly !

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

I would definitely recommend Cromox. I used to finish my razors on newsprint after honing - which does smooth the edge quite a bit but takes forever. I got a cromox crayon and applied it to the back of my SRD webbed fabric strop and have never looked back. 15-20 super-light strokes give wonderful results, and I attained a new level of sharpness. Is is absolutely necessary? No, but it sure is nice!

Thank you all kindly for your comments. After reading them, I did sort of a pyramid routine with
the Swaty and the Naniwa 12k, finishing with a few very light laps on the 12K. Then I did
lucky 7 laps on the CeOx pasted strop, followed by 25 linen/50 leather.

Boy what a difference! Not only was this mornings shave BBS, but very smooth as well.

Now I might just try a work-out on the translucent arkansas stone and see what happens.

Thanks again for the advice!

Paul

Paul;
If you have a good quality Arkansas, try it with a little oil. I use Norton's knife oil on all my novaculite stones. Light wieght sewing machine oil works too. Do not use a penetrating oil with a solvent base as this could gum up the stone. Novaculite can take some time to work with. They can leave a more "toothy" edge. A few laps on CrOx should calm it down. CeOx will have little effect.
Mike

I finish the few stainless razors I have with diamond paste. I never heard it was bad for it. 1/10 micron and .05 micron oil, both on balsa. No stropping necessary til after a shave.
Ed
quicknicker

Mike (Modine)....You were right: the arkie makes for a "toothy" edge. I don't care
for that, so I guess its back to the Naniwa12K + CeOx. Its much smoother that
way.

Next time I'm in the States, I'll pick up some diamond paste/spray and CrOx and try that.

Thanks for all the help!

Paul

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

I just finished touching up a Dovo SS razor. It's now very sharp and gave me
an extremely close shave. However, it was not particularly smooth: no pulling or
dragging, but just kinda rough feeling.

So, I stropped the heck out of it, on linen and latigo, which resulted in improvement.
Then I stropped some more, but it seems to have hit a wall.

I was contemplating using a CeOx pasted strop next, but I seem to recall reading
somewhere that stainless steel does not respond too well to pastes.

Is that correct? Any suggestions?

My highest grit stone is a Naniwa 12K. I also have a 3-line Swaty and a
translucent arkansas stone. Plus the CeOx pasted strop. Those are the
limits of my toolkit.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Paul

This is one of those topics where you just have to
try it and decide for yourself.

I like the idea of a good Barber Hone and Na12k pyramid.
I will have to try it myself.