Thread: Blade maintenance - pasted strop?

I have been using a straight for about 3 months and really enjoying it. I have about 4 razors in my rotation and one of them became a bit dull so I gave it 5 laps on my coticule, stropped it and it's back on form.

I have been wondering though if I shouldn't make use of a pasted strop or use paste on my linen strop which is part of my TM latigo strop. I do have the paste for the linen strop but have so far held off from applying it because I didn't want to ruin my linen. I also have a TM practice strop which I could use as a pasted strop.

So my question is what should I do? Freshen my razors up on the coticule and not worry about pastes? Use paste on my linen and strop with it before each shave? Paste my practice strop and use it as and when required?

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Originally Posted by Smalleyboy

I have been using a straight for about 3 months and really enjoying it. I have about 4 razors in my rotation and one of them became a bit dull so I gave it 5 laps on my coticule, stropped it and it's back on form.

I have been wondering though if I shouldn't make use of a pasted strop or use paste on my linen strop which is part of my TM latigo strop. I do have the paste for the linen strop but have so far held off from applying it because I didn't want to ruin my linen. I also have a TM practice strop which I could use as a pasted strop.

So my question is what should I do? Freshen my razors up on the coticule and not worry about pastes? Use paste on my linen and strop with it before each shave? Paste my practice strop and use it as and when required?

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Honing removes metal so the idea is to hone as little as possible and only when the blade is dull and can't be brought back any other way. Paste is used to put a smooth finish on the edge after honing and to sharpen a blade that is starting to dull without going back to the hone. Ideally, you will use the paste more than the hone and less than the strop. Paste should not be used every day because, although it wears the razor less than the hone, it is abrasive and removes metal. The only thing that you will use every day is the strop, first linen and then leather and, sometimes, leather in between passes.

So, you don't want to put paste on the linen of the good strop because you will need it for everyday stropping. Put the paste on the linen of the practice strop. If your razor has been honed, you can put a smooth finish on it with the pasted strop. Then strop and shave every day with just the linen and leather. When the edge starts to pull a little, go to the pasted strop first to sharpen it up and then go back to the linen and leather for everyday shaving. After a while, the pasted strop will stop working and then you need to go back to the hone and start the cycle over again.

My practice strop is leather only. So I guess I need to look at getting some suitable paste for a leather strop. Using Dovo as an example, am I better getting the medium red paste or the coarser green paste?

I guess I am heading towards buying a 2 sided paddle strop and using both pastes. If I do go down this route, do you use both pastes equally, or do you use the finer paste more often until it isn't enough to restore a razor and then drop down to the coarser paste?

Originally Posted by Smalleyboy

My practice strop is leather only. So I guess I need to look at getting some suitable paste for a leather strop. Using Dovo as an example, am I better getting the medium red paste or the coarser green paste?

I guess I am heading towards buying a 2 sided paddle strop and using both pastes. If I do go down this route, do you use both pastes equally, or do you use the finer paste more often until it isn't enough to restore a razor and then drop down to the coarser paste?

I think that's the idea. If you want to play around before buying another strop, you can put the paste on a piece of cardboard, a newspaper or a piece of balsa wood and experiment with it to see what you like.

buy both green and red paste .you will use mostly green and sometimes red one.green will restre edge faster