Thread: Pasted strop - best type/size?

If I decide to have a second strop dedicated for use as a pasted strop what type/dimensions would be best?

I have a rather narrow, 4 sided balsa wood strop, but I think a hanging is probably easier to use (once you develop good stropping technique).

Fido,

I use 12 x 3 inch bench & paddle strops for pastes.

Mr Miller of www.strop-shop.co.uk makes a superb double sided paddle strop for 34.99 GBP. One side is latigo, the other pressed wool felt.

Pressed wool felt seems to be coming into vogue as a medium for pastes, and particularly diamond pastes.

If you are of the DIY type, then a lot of the chappies here use balsa wood, usually glued to a firm base (wood MDF etc).

best regards

Russ

Originally Posted by PhatMan

Fido,

I use 12 x 3 inch bench & paddle strops for pastes.

Mr Miller of www.strop-shop.co.uk makes a superb double sided paddle strop for 34.99 GBP. One side is latigo, the other pressed wool felt.

Pressed wool felt seems to be coming into vogue as a medium for pastes, and particularly diamond pastes.

If you are of the DIY type, then a lot of the chappies here use balsa wood, usually glued to a firm base (wood MDF etc).

best regards

Russ

Thanks Russ

Neil supplied my strop so I know he produces a great product. I'll be getting back to Neil about the paddle methinks!

Actually, IMHO. The hard pressed wool felt works best with Diamond Spray, not pastes.
Spray available at SRD.

Fido, sounds like you have your solution. In any case, just to give anyone interested my limited experience with pasted strops ..... I agree with zib that the SRD hanging felt is a great pasted strop with the diamond spray. I also have Tony Milller's 4 sided pasted paddle with diamond paste. At first I didn't like it but with experience I began to appreciate it and now find it to be a really effective tool.

I started out with the Hand American corian flat bed with the magnetic base. I've got the magnet backed felt with Hand American chrom-ox and the magnetic leather which I've not tried . I found it to be a good option if that is what you have.

The Livi loom strop is a really lovely piece of work and very effective. The leather side is the most luxurious stropping material I have seen and the canvas side is so impregnated with chrom-ox that it resembles a pool table. Real class act and works well.

My current favorite paste vehicle is balsa wood. I went to the hobby store and bought 3"x36"x1/8" aircraft balsa for $1.92. The aircraft balsa was plenty flat and required no sanding. I went to a plastics place and for a buck each I got 1/2"x3"x6" cut offs of lucite and glued the balsa to that with contact cement. I use 1.0, 0,5 and .025 paste in that progression.

I think that after bevel setting and honing on a Norton 4/8, or the equivalent, doing a progression with the above balsa hones would give as good an edge as can be had in the sharpness department. YMMV.