Thread: Diamond spray strop after honing

I'm doing all my honing on a norton 4/8 k ..I'm getting the hang of it,my question is after honing should I strop on a diamond spray treated strop , how many times then scrub leather then premium leather??

Originally Posted by Airportcopper

I'm doing all my honing on a norton 4/8 k ..I'm getting the hang of it,my question is after honing should I strop on a diamond spray treated strop , how many times then scrub leather then premium leather??

Hi There

My traditional honing progression ends with a 12k natural stone, I then continue onto a strop that is impregnated with 0.5 micron diamond paste. Next it's to the 0.25 Diamond paste, this gives he keenest edges I have experienced in my experimentation. I follow this with a plain leather strop. You will see when your strop needs to be cleaned, it will turn grey from the steel deposits.

If you are new to honing and stropping, you should probably just stick to stropping on plain leather for a while to see how that shaves. Then you have a standard to compare to. Have you had any razors that have been professionally honed? If not I recommend it so you know what to compare to.

Yes i have plenty that have been honed by the pros.. ill just stick to leather for touch ups ill.use treated strop...

I agree with Carl in that there is nothing wrong with gilding the lilly with a pasted strop after honing .... but ..... I wouldn't go there until I was getting satisfactory shaves with the hones and clean leather stropping first. Once you've got that level of expertise trying different things to enhance the edge further, whether it be higher grit stones, diamond paste or spray , or chrom-ox and what have you is cool.

There are multiple ways to maintain a keen shave ready razor edge. I like to keep CrOx and 3u and 0.5u diamond pasted homemade bench strops for touchup when my shave ready razors start to lose their keeness and no longer respond well to my daily 30 Linen and 60 unpasted latigo hanging strop. Pasted strops are an inexpensive and perhaps less aggressive alternative to refreshing on a barber's hone or fine grit stone. A few passes on my pasted strops followed by wiping off the grit and stropping on the unpasted daily strop usually restores edge keeness. When the pasted strops start to lose their effectiveness, it is time to refresh/reset the edge by rehoning on stones. Keep your unpasted strop surfaces clean. Do not let them get contaminated by CrOx/diamond swarf or other debris that can adversely affect the daily strop. Prevent cross contamination between pasted strops using different pastes.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I agree with Carl in that there is nothing wrong with gilding the lilly with a pasted strop after honing .... but ..... I wouldn't go there until I was getting satisfactory shaves with the hones and clean leather stropping first. Once you've got that level of expertise trying different things to enhance the edge further, whether it be higher grit stones, diamond paste or spray , or chrom-ox and what have you is cool.

Thanks I like the phrase "gilding the lily".

I think something to note is that if you aren't using your strop right you could kill your bevel quickly with a diamond pasted strop.

Originally Posted by straightrazorheaven

I think something to note is that if you aren't using your strop right you could kill your bevel quickly with a diamond pasted strop.

Very true, and I know this because I've done it! I honed a few razors which came out nice, only to have it undone by using too much pressure/too many strokes on my diamond-pasted strop. I was amazed at how much "dry swarf" accumulates on the pasted cotton even after 10-15 laps; even .5 diamond spray will remove a LOT of metal if you're not careful....