Thread: Does anyone have any experience with this strop paste?

After messing about for ages with various strops and polishing compounds, I'm looking at experimenting with proprietary strop pastes. Does anyone have any experience with this one? It is made in Solingen, I understand by Herder.



I would be mainly using it on hanging strops, possibly fabric or leather.

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

It is a good product, the red paste is medium fine and black is fine.

It is made by Herold, who also make strops.

Originally Posted by Badgister

It is a good product, the red paste is medium fine and black is fine.

It is made by Herold, who also make strops.

Many thanks! And fine with a hanging strop?

The stats that they gave years ago, yes they work fine with a hanging leather strop as long as you do your job
I have found these to be very well matched to the older softer Sheffield steels

Green 5-8 micron
Red 3-5 micron
Black 1-3 micron
Soligen pastes are a much more mild cutter then say a diamond paste of the same micron size...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The stats that they gave years ago, yes they work fine with a hanging leather strop as long as you do your job
I have found these to be very well matched to the older softer Sheffield steels

Green 5-8 micron
Red 3-5 micron
Black 1-3 micron
Soligen pastes are a much more mild cutter then say a diamond paste of the same micron size...

Many thanks!

A general question: I have seen in various sources that the cutting particles in a 4000 grit stone are 4-5 microns (eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpening_stone). I have also seen chromium oxide powder and red ferric oxide powder advertised with particle sizes of 0.5 and 0.3 micron respectively (eg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264631273241).

I know there is much more to abrasive quality that the size of the cutting particle, but how do I square these numbers with the particle size in the list above for the Herold pastes?

So, there is grit (partial) size and there is finish quality. A lot depends on the grit, is it friable, (will it break down further), how deep will it cut, (partial shape) and the substrate, (does the grit imbed into the substrate, leather vs wood). All affect the ability to “Polish”.

Take Arks and Jnats, some say all Ark grit and Jnat grit respectively are the same and the difference is in the concentration and binder.

Bottom line, it is not just about grit size. Add to all that steel, substrate hanging vs paddle and technique, are why paste works for some and not for others, your mileage may vary.

Here are photos from an old post on the effects of pressure, (just one variable)

No experience. I use Theirs Issard strop paste from The Art of Shaving on the canvas strop. Have used it for years with only good results.

All of the Soligen paste work but where most folks have issue with paste, is using too much pressure. You just need enough laps to polish the edge, you do not need to polish the whole bevel. Do not use extra pressure, let the paste, do the work.

The Dovo White is a Diamond / Aluminum Oxide paste and will quickly leave a stria free bevel. Too much pressure or too many laps, will leave a thin edge that can easily micro chip, then you have to go back to the stone.

Before you paste a strop, you may want to paste a piece of cardboard, (inside of a cereal box) and experiment using as a paddle strop. Paste a strop once you find a paste that works best. Once applied to a linen or leather strop it can never be completely removed.

Chrome Oxide is .50um about 30k grit for comparison.

Apart from what I may have said elsewhere, my take is that these pastes are best use with limited surface areas, like the Herold tensioned loom strop or the paddle with felt underlying the leather, or the four-surface Thiers paddle. For larger, hanging vegetable-tanned strops sanded to provide some tooth surface, these are best used as criss-cross locating markers along the strop's length, followed by a charging with red ferric oxide pigment and black ferric oxide pigment.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

Apart from what I may have said elsewhere, my take is that these pastes are best use with limited surface areas, like the Herold tensioned loom strop or the paddle with felt underlying the leather, or the four-surface Thiers paddle. For larger, hanging vegetable-tanned strops sanded to provide some tooth surface, these are best used as criss-cross locating markers along the strop's length, followed by a charging with red ferric oxide pigment and black ferric oxide pigment.

Thank you for the information.

May I ask why you feel that they work better on the more structured strops?

Also, what are 'criss-cross locating markers'?