Thread: Felt Or Balsa For CrOx?

I remember years ago when I started experimenting w/ pastes, I used crox on balsa--the edge was OK, but in retrospect, was not as smooth as it could have been. I got into CBN earlier this year & right away noticed it could get harsh on balsa, plus the balsa really had a tendency to load up w/ swarf, making it much less efficient & eventually making it incapable of giving the performance CBN is capable of. (Probably CBN's fast cutting speed has something to do w/ the rapid swarf deposition.).

My thinking is, to get the best of a paste, you need a surface w/ at least a little bit of give so you get a slight microbevel or convexity to the very tip of the edge. In addition to riding over the skin better & "acting" smoother, mathematically, this actually gives a slightly stronger edge than a perfectly straight edge (more metal behind the cutting edge), so in theory the edge should last longer. Now, the amount of convexity we impart through pasted stropping is probably negligible, so the edges probably don't last any longer in real world use, but they do tend to feel nice if done right (not too much).

so.. what does CBN mean?? thanks!

Cubic boron nitride (CBN) is the second hardest material after synthetic diamond and is synthesised from hexagonal boron nitride under conditions similar to those used to produce synthetic diamond from graphite.

As for substrate I use.... I've been having rather good success with hard knit wool cloth... currently glued to a 1/4" thick slab of balsa and the balsa is magnetically mounted on my 12" x 3", 3/8" thick cold rolled steel bench strop. I have a number of surfaces I use on that steel bed, leathers... both smooth and scrubbed.

I do have a glass plate that I intend to use spray adhesive to mount a layer of the hard knit wool cloth to, and then just rub a little Crox powder into it. I only use about 5 or 6 laps on the wool/crox combo, but only for removing any lingering, microscopic burrs left after finish honing on one of my natural hones. In the past, I used a crox pasted paddle to freshen my razors, but I don't seem to like it these days, preferring one of my Natural hones instead. Does it work?!?! Well, on a rare occasion when *only* using Natural finishing hones, I have had sharp edges suddenly go dull during my first pass... rare to be sure, but it has happened and my suspicion was that a false edge (faint burr) had rolled over.

I have never experienced this issue after I started using the wool/crox combo.

Hard knit wool.... in my case, I simply asked my tailor for some 100% wool scraps left over from making suits. He has a large box of such scraps and was all to happy to give me some... The free part might have had something to do with my sharpening his shears and kitchen knives for free.....

The idea came from Kousuke Iwasaki's book on honing razors and while I like the book... his suggestion that gents of my age, might have withered arms, was a bit annoying.


As to what to use.... we all need to try things out and see how they work for us. While Glen suggests that balsa is recent and was originally used for "testing" pastes, I do remember my Dad having a balsa surfaced paddle strop he pasted and used in his barbers business (1950s and 60s)... I seem to recall he used it with black paste... probably one of those black crayons you can get from several sources today. He never bought any of these things... all his pasted paddle strops and his hair brushes, he made himself. I still remember going out to a farm with him, where he would get horse hair to tie his own hair brushes.

Were his edges any good? No idea other than he would cut my hair with a straight instead of shears or clippers.... And, for the record, he never shaved himself with a straight, but rather a Gillette safety razor and Wilkinson Sword blades.


Regards

Christian

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

While Glen suggests that balsa is recent and was originally used for "testing" pastes, I do remember my Dad having a balsa surfaced paddle strop he pasted and used in his barbers business (1950s and 60s)... I seem to recall he used it with black paste... probably one of those black crayons you can get from several sources today. He never bought any of these things... all his pasted paddle strops and his hair brushes, he made himself. I still remember going out to a farm with him, where he would get horse hair to tie his own hair brushes.

Were his edges any good? No idea other than he would cut my hair with a straight instead of shears or clippers.... And, for the record, he never shaved himself with a straight, but rather a Gillette safety razor and Wilkinson Sword blades.


Regards

Christian

No No That is not what I suggested, The Balsa Strop idea is old, much like nearly every idea for SR's it stated for other tools, what was new was using it to test the pastes for Straight Razors...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Each medium that the Pastes are applied to impart a different level of effectiveness..


I can only tell you what the history has been on SRP with razors

With Straight Razors there was never any issue with harsh edges from pastes until people started using Balsa as a test medium, and that was what it was first used as..

Several years back people started saying if you just want to try a paste, try it on a piece of Balsa before you commit an expensive strop to it.. That changed to using it exclusively, to people getting harsh edges..

Thanks Glen,

I must have read the "in between" bits, and not the lines themselves!