Thread: Pasted Strops a rough guide

Ps: when I do my bevel setting testing I run the blade over a glass bottle a couple times to get rid of any residual bevels.[/QUOTE]

what does this do?

It destroys your edge. So you know you are starting with a completely dull blade.

It really is a very mild form of bread knifing but your not trying to fix the blade just dull it.

Actually the substrate does matter, especially with sub-micron grits. Additionally with CBN best results are achieved wet. I agree with Jimmy and have had good results with woven seat belt material, nylon, polyester and Kevlar. The properties of nylon/poly polish a bevel and edge extremely well. Which is one of the goals of pasted strops.

It is much like auto waxes and polish, in that as much as 50 percent of the finishing/polishing is the buffing while removing the polish/wax. One of the best strops for pasteing is polyester canvas sailcloth, great for Diamond, Chrome Ox and Cerium Ox.

I prefer hanging strops as opposed to paddles mostly because they are easier to use. Paddles do work better used in the .50 - .25 micron grits, if you can hold them to the bench. I use bench dogs and end vice with a dog, but they are difficult to hold with aggressive paste. I like foam for paddles.

For sub-micron CBN I get great results with a hanging paper and hanging dense foam strops. With CBN you want the CBN to do the work without the impurities of traditional substrates. Also these strops can be misted for best results.

I wasn't saying that different substrates won't have different effects on different paste.

I am actually very certain that I could speed up my high grit diamond paste on a piece of balsa backed with a hard word. However I feel that would not leave the bevel as smooth as off of leather. On the other hand at that point I probably don't need the edge smooth as the dovo paste on leather will do that work for me. But I prefer leather so that is what I use and get good results from using paste from 40 microns to .15 microns.

I have used a bunch of other mediums such as denim, felt, linen, balsa, paper and dense foam. Just like how the paste react on leather and that is a personal choose.

That is what I was getting at In my other post the medium that you use doesn't really matter as long as you get the results you want. To do that you have to learn how the paste reacts on your chosen medium and adjust to that.

Hi. Currently I have Suehiro Cerax 1000/3000 stone which I use to hone knives and axes. As far as I understand I may buy Naniwa Super 10k grit stone and it must be enough to hone a razor after 3k grit Suehiro but I do not want to buy any other stones (probably I'll have to buy 400 grit stone in future). Stones require proper storage, lapping, many of them are not universal like my Cerax or Chosera and work well only with some kinds of steel and they are more expensive. I wonder if I can use Dovo red and black pastes after 3000 grit stone to hone a straight razor? I can buy these pastes for $13 and a paddle for $15 on a local market.

I appreciate any help.

That should work perfectly well chm. If you are going by my system the 3000 stone would just take the place of the dovo green paste.

You do need a finisher post 3k. At 3k your edge is not going to be that straight, the 10k would work but the 12k Super Stone may be a better choice, it is very aggressive and can make that jump easily. Reviews on that 1/3k stone are not great and may be an issue as it may be too aggressive for razors, causing chipping at finish.

If you go from 3k to paste, you may also have an issue with a chipping edge. You probably need at least an 8k edge to get a straight chip free edge.

Do be sure to lap your stones if you are using them to hone knives and axes.

This was an interesting read. Thanks for resurrecting it.

Some good info Euclid however as to chipping edges I have seen that with paste and stones. I chalk it up to a poor bevel set at the 1 k. I have never had trouble going from a 1k stone to paste or from a 4 k to paste as long as my bevel is set right on the 1 k

Originally Posted by Castel33

Some good info Euclid however as to chipping edges I have seen that with paste and stones. I chalk it up to a poor bevel set at the 1 k. I have never had trouble going from a 1k stone to paste or from a 4 k to paste as long as my bevel is set right on the 1 k

Quite an interesting technique. I have never dabbled into paste other then chromium oxide. I never found it to improve my edge. So I have long since stopped using it. What would a paste edge feel like in comparison to a edge honed on stones?

Just a curiosity of mine. Very neat thread! Thanks for sharing guys. There are many paths to the same place.