Thread: Paste questions

Originally Posted by Pete_S

It sounds like you might think that pasting a strop is something that you can do, then undo. Once you apply paste to a strop its pretty much permanent. You can get most of the paste off, but not all, there always will be an abrasive action on that strop. I guess you could sand pretty deep into the leather to get rid of the paste, but that would likely mess up the strop.

You can get linen only strops from thewellshavedgentlemen or straightrazordesigns.

A pasted strop is something that is used in place of honing, you use it when the razor starts to get dull. The linen and leather strops maintain the edge, but don't remove any metal, like a pasted strop does.

The simplest set up, in my opinion, is a hanging leather/linen combo strop and a leather only strop for CrO paste-thats what makes Tony Millers second strop offer so great. If your current leather strop is really nice, I'd go ahead and just buy a linen strop, then maybe buy something like those pasted paddle strops Rayman sells in the classifieds, they're pretty cheap. If you have something like an Illinois strop I'd just buy a nice strop from TM or SRD, and paste the one I have now.

Pete S -

OK... I have a much clearer picture now.

Sounds like what I should have are three strops....

1 Leather (no paste)
1 Leather (Paste)
1 Linen (paste?)

First question.... The CrO is only for the linen side, correct?

Second question is: can you detail out when I should use these strops? (what do I strop with before I shave and how many laps type of thing)

Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom!

You'd paste the cheaper leather strop with CrO. You'd only use that when the razor is getting dull. You use the plain linen/leather before you shave, about 30 on linen and about 50 on leather. Thats all you really need, assuming you get your razors sent out when they get dull.

Here is what I came up with:

The brand new strop, I will coat just the leather with Cro. This will be used to strop the blade when it gets dull.

I will purchase a linen/leather strop for use before and after shaving. I will not paste the leather on this strop, but will paste the linen. Question is, what do I paste the linen with?

Does this sound like a good plan?

Michael

you need to not focus so much on paste, paste is not everything. use a plain leather plain linnen strop on every shave. after say 30 shaves when your plain linnen/ plain leather isnt keeping the blade smooth use the 16 dollar CrmOx balsa strop from the classifieds to touch it up. when that doesnt help get your norton 4k/8k involved. thats all you need. KISS Keep It Stupid Simple

Mikedelo, I understand your frustration!

Here is what I do along with my understanding of the whole process of stropping. I hope it's useful and not too much of a rant.

Leather side: This is your main stropping surface. You use this before each shave (and after too, if you like!). This shouldn't have any paste on it. As others have said, if you have applied abrasive paste in the past, it's essentially there for life. After some time, you may notice the leather starts to look a little dry or cracked and feels stiffer. If this happens you can recondition it by rubbing in a small quantity of neatsfoot oil with an old rag or the palm of your hand. You might need to do this once a year in a dry climate.

Linen side: This is an optional strop, often on the back of your main leather strop. Some people like them, some don't bother. It's not essential. This strop can either be used unpasted, or some people (myself included) like to coat the surface in a non-abrasive strop paste (eg, the one supplied by Dovo in a white tube). You can also get non-abrasive paste as a sort of crayon which can be rubbed against the strop. They're both basically the same thing.


Now, the above is everything you might need. The strops below are useful for bringing a dull edge back to life to prolong the time needed between honings.


You can get a variety of different strops which may be treated with abrasive pastes. These should only be used when your edge is starting to dull. They help restore sharpness to the edge but eventually, you will need to hone your razor, or get someone else to do it.

There's no hard and fast rule as to which kind of strop is the best used with abrasive pastes or which pastes are best. Different people prefer different ones. I use the Red/Black paste combo on a double sided leather paddle strop. Others here will use CrO on a balsa strop and others may use a diamond paste or any number of things on a hanging linen strop. The combination really doesn't matter too much, providing you use a good technique and understand what you're doing.


My advice: Get your basic leather and linen strop. If you already have a shave-ready razor that should keep you going for the time being. If you then decide you want to use abrasive pastes, have a thorough read through the Wiki and look at the advice on here and then experiment and see what works best for you.

Good luck!