Pasting Strops

As edges go, I'm also getting a nice fine hone from Tilly.
I'm thinking of getting a medium too.
And David is preparing a razor. We don't know which exact blade yet.

I love the look of your paddle strops John and I also love the price.
I've read that modern waterstones (8000) may exceed the finest grit of the old hones.
I assume that pasting strops is intended to be an intermediary step between normal fine honing and the final strop, or perhaps even having to hone at all.
I also imagine a lot depends on two other factors, of course; the blade and the user, but do you have a suggestion for me about a leather and paste that might serve my imagined purpose well.
I also know that I love to travel so it's only a matter of time.

X

I always advise people that the key is to get the razor providing a nice smooth and close shave from the hone and then use paste if you want for a little extra glide or smooooooth. I have found that the natural leather flatbed hones from Keith at Hand American work best for me with either. .5 or .25 diamond paste or the green Chromium Oxide. Stropping is always after the fact, but before the shave. Good Luck. Lynn

So you'd say you generally use it as a post honing step rather than prior to dry stropping. With the pasted strop around, do think you're getting a longer run out of the edge before having to go to the hone? I was thinking olive oil, but what's this Cromium-Oxide? Where can I link to that data?

X

Will you get more life put of the edge? Probably. Thats one of the reasons that we use it. It also provides a smoother, sharper edge.

Chromium Oxide is the pigment they use for green paint. It can be purchased in various grit sizes.
The size sold by Handamerican.com is 0.5 micron. It is already mixed in with a lubricant, premixed, no olive oil necessary. This is the correct grit size to use after honing.

Hope this helps,

I would agre too that a hone is really the thing for a dull or dulling razor. A pasted strop will only take you so far before a stone is needed. That said though I have gotten some out of the box razors where I needed them with just pastes. I use one of my 4 sided, natural leather strops with 9.0, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.25 pastes to do that. If the razor needs help I usually start on the 1.0 for an out of the box razor or 0.5 for a user getting dull. If the 1.0 does not do it I use the 9.0 for a limited amount and go from there. If that does not do the trick it's off to the hones. For most eBay specials it starts at the hone.

Tony

Technically, different pasted strops should be able to take a razor from butter knife status, all the way up to supreme shaving comfort. After all, it is the same principle as the scary-sharp method of sharpening. You can get very course grits, or as fine as .25 micron, which corresponds roughly to a 30000 grit waterstone! Even the .5 micron paste which most of us use corresponds to a 15000 grit waterstone. The problem is the vehicle the paste is loaded on. While this can be an aid with problem blades that aren't entirely even along the edge, it doesn't provide the perfectly flat unyielding surface of rigid hone. So stropping with a pasted strop can lead to more imperfections in the blade edge, as the leather or pad holding the paste is more prone to compression, leather irregularities and imperfections. While not a problem during regular stropping where the the edge is simply polished, when you have an abrasive being used, perfect geometry becomes much more important. So rounding of edges also comes into play. So with a pasted strop, you can have great results, poor results, or anything in between, depending on a host of variables. A razor hone removes most of those variables. You will achieve more consistent results by learning to hone correctly, followed by stropping on a plain leather strop. Once you can do that, then experiment with pasted strops to see if it will improve things for you. Anyway, some ideas to play with.