Thread: uneven strop ?

Hi, and first of all thanks for all the information provided in this forum !

I recently bought a straight razor, and have been trying to get it sharp enough for shaving. To that end I bought a 4 sided pasted paddle strop with 3.0, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.25 micron diamond paste. I also have a japanese 1000/6000 waterstone, an old barberhone that I think is made of slate, and a strop of course.

I have been getting poor results with the pasted strop, and I think I found a possible reason (other than bad technique): when I hold the razor flat on the paddle strop and to the light, I can see a gap in the middle, so the razor only touches the strop at the sides. Also, when using it off the 6k waterstone I can see the mirror finish develops unevenly (and if I try using straight strokes instead of the x pattern, the mirror finish only develops near the heel and toe of the razor.)

It varies among sides how much of a gap, but no more than 1mm on any side, and on some sides it only at one end. Initially I thought it just needed to be broken in, but I've tried to the point of each side beginning to blacken noticably so I'm afraid I need to take some other action to make it work.

Do you think the strop can be fixed ?

My razor is a DOVO Black Star, carbon steel and brown pakkawood handle, it's very nice :-D

I was thinking maybe i could flatten it with sandpaper on a mirror, like I do the hones, but then I'd need to reapply paste. Do you think it'll leave an adequate surface exposed for sharpening ?


Thanks !