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  1. #1
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    Default Stropping with diamonds,.... back-honing

    Guys, I've been reading,.... and reading,... and reading,... :shock: you sure do know a lot about straights!!

    There are some "gaps" in what I've been reading and what I can "picture" happening. Wondered if you'd clear them up for me?

    1. Using a .5 diamond paste on a strop. Now, is that my one and only best russian strop? What am I to do with the paste that's on there? Should I have more than one strop for pasting? If so, how does one store a pasted strop?

    2. Back-honing? Is this using the hone like a strop? I've read about the wire edge, over-honing, pyramids, and think I understand when to do it, just not clear as to "how."

    Thanks in advance for all your help!!

    Chris

  2. #2
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    If you have a good russian strop use it as a plain strop, Get another strop for the paste like the flatbed hone (strop) from www.handamerican.com.

    John

  3. #3
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    back hone: instead of edge leading, lead with back (spine) of razor like stropping.

  4. #4
    Senior Member uthed's Avatar
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    Default

    Hi Chris ....

    A-to-Q-1) You need a different side of leather for every paste. So if you pick a strop with a smooth side and a not-so-rough back side, you can use the not-so-rough side for paste, and the keep the smooth side unpasted for a finishing strop.

    I find two-sided paddle strops are economical if you use a sequence of several pastes, but I like the longer, barber-style, swing-strop as a final plain-leather finishing strop.

    W.r.t. your Russian strop, you can leave it as a very high class paste strop. But if you want to use it as a plain leather strop, you have to remove all traces of the paste. Saddle soap treatment followed by a scrubbing with shaving later ought to get the removing job done, eventually. Then you want to use a conditioner such as Fromm Strop Dressing on it to restore the surface the paste and cleanings scruffed up a bit.

    A pasted strop should be stored like any other strop, preferably not in the humidity of the bathroom, however.

    A-to-Q-2) For an explanation of back-honing, see my message on the subject on the Yahoo! SRP forum #49209 and the related message on detecting wire-edges #49253







    AND .... if you haven't already, try to read the PFD chapter on honing from the 1961 babering textbook we have in the files.

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