on a strop?
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on a strop?
The paste is abrasive to "touch up" the edge on the razor.
The paste (when a razor is strapped against it) will remove those microscopic bits of metal that get in the way of the stropping motion (and in the way of a sharper blade)
Some paste is abrasive. Some (dovo white paste) is not and is really just for dressing the strop (increasing friction for better edge true-ing). Chromium Oxide at .5 micron grit seems to be the preferred stuff for touching up a blade. Diamond pastes are used a fair bit as well (again, .5 micron seems to be the go to grit for blade touch up.)
Hope this helps.
-Rob:tu
Paste on a strop works much the same way (but much, much finer) as sand on sandpaper-that is to say, it is there to remove metal from your razor's edge.
0.5um Crome Ox is wonderful stuff, so is 1.0 micron diamond paste.:tu
Paste are just an abrasive used to mildly sharpen a blade. They are also IMHO ( some people probably won't like this ) a crutch for bad honing skills. I'm not trying to condemn pastes, I've used them myself. But I can say that my skills in honing increased dramatically when I stopped using them.