Thread: stropping questions from a newbie

+1 on Ben's post, you should not paste your daily strop. Keep that totally clean for everyday use, and you can use a CrOx strop for touch ups. Theres a sticky in the Wiki on how to make a pasted strop.

Once the razor starts to pull or doesnt shave as well, do half a dozen passes on your pasted strop then go to your daily strop and shave.

IIRC, CrOx is about 30k grit equivalent. A 30k Shapton has written on it that the micron size is 0.49, so 0.5 diamond or CrOx is pretty much the same.

I dont have to use paste if you dont want to. Its quite possible to come from a coticule (which are around 9k-12k) and go right to your daily strop and then shave. TBH you could come from an 8k synthetic like a Naniwa and go right to your daily strop and still get a very smooth comfortable shave. Some people just prefer a pasted edge.

The effect a strop has on the razors edge is called burnishing and it serves to further refine the razors edge. So dont underestimate your strop!