Your Preference - Pasted Linen/felt, etc. or Leather or Balsa

I haven't found a definitive "this paste with this material" discussion and I think it's because such combinations do not exist. This is another YMMV thing. But for the fun of it, I'd like to know what everyone prefers. I haven't tried enough to settle on one but I am currently using .5 diamond spray on felt followed by Chromox on felt. I have the felt on bench strops that I made. I'm particularly interested in whether people like to use diamond spray on a soft material like linen or felt or is diamond spray on leather preferred? I'd like to know what your setups are. Pictures would be good too.

I use crox on balsa, .25 diamond slurry on felt, and .5 dia paste on leather. I also use diamond lapping film. So far I found the slurry on felt gets me a very sharp edge that lasts(7 shaves without a touchup) the crox and pasted leather about 5 and the .1 micron lapping film doesnt last 3 shaves. Its super refined and sharp and probably too fine an edge for the steel. I ordered some crox to put on my hanger on felt to see how that goes as I was advised that the edge would be smoother on felt or linen as opposed to on balsa. I will be trying this soon.

I use crox on balsa and have .25 diamond and .5 diamond on felts. I do not use any treatments on my leather strops. All treatments are SRD sprays.

I would think with diamond because it is such a hard media the background would make a really big difference. The harder the surface the less rebound from the diamond and the more force exerted on the blade. I don't know that anyone has experimented with this but it would be interesting.

I tried .1 micron film on granite. Wicked sharp but not in a bad way, only thing is edge doesn't last. So far I like the edge off felt and diamond slurry, very sharp and lasts.

On Granite huh? That sounds sounds like something I would try.

I have tried pasting leather, felt, linen and balsa. For me I found leather provides the best median. I have used a number of different paste also dovo, diamond, crox, ferox and graphite

I haven't experimented with pastes enough to draw a firm conclusion on how long an edge will last but ..... I have an old Tony Miller 4 sided paddle with paste on all 4 sides. Varying grits and I don't remember what .... the usual suspects I'm sure. I have the SRD felt hanger with .05 diamond spray, a HandAmerican flatbed with chrom-ox on felt that worked nice. I also have 3 pieces of aircraft balsa mounted on plexiglass 3x8 with diamond pastes in progressive grits. Finally the Livi loom with chrom-ox on canvas and clean leather on the other side. I use it and the SRD hanging felt when I need to go to a paste. I don't go there often but when I do any of the fore mentioned work as you would figure they would.

I prefer a progression of strops, 0.5 micron diamond paste, 0.25 micron diamond paste, then plain leather.

Dia film from lee valley, I had a granite tile cut into 3x6. peel the film and stick it on. I need to try film on a piece of moist copy paper on granite. Theres too many ways to skin a cat it seems.

Use paste on a Cotton Sport's Belt. Originally did it not to ruin my linen or leather strops but found that it works very, very well.

i use chromium on felt, i also have .5 diamond on scrub leather but prefer the cromium

I generally use leather alone without pastes, but sometimes I'll go with leather all by itself, or both.

I have a couple military style belts. Im gonna give it a shot with some crox powder.

Oh, let's see.

CrO 0.5 on webbed fabric, a herringbone cotton strop, a SRD Premium English bridle, and on a Premium 1 SRD paddle leather.
Diamond paste 0.25 and 0.5 on Hard pressed felt strops, both hanging and paddle.
CBN 0.125 spray and 0.1 paste on a couple Roo strops, and on a Scrupleworks cowhide strop.

The CBN on Roo is my preferred method, but in honesty, I don't use paste or sprays all that much anymore.

I've also played with films a bit, all the way down to 0.03micron, but I'm not a huge fan of that.

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Originally Posted by ace

I generally use leather alone without pastes, but sometimes I'll go with leather all by itself, or both.

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Huh? Oh, wait, funny!

Lots of different approaches. I'm not hearing any consensus and I can't say I've found the magic for myself. I most commonly use spray on CrOx .5 on felt for 15 trips or so, often followed by .1 CNB on felt. It sharpens the razor nicely for around five shaves.

Does anyone strop on linen, then do the pasted/sprayed felt followed by stropping on leather vs the alternative which would be pasted/sprayed felt, then linen then leather stropping? Anyone think there's a difference?

Cubic boron nitride on a paddle strop is keeping my razors going and giving my hones a rest. I got the Jende Industries spray bottle: excellent stuff.

I have never met a rock honed razor that couldn't be improved by pastes.

That being said I really like chromium, iron or cerium oxide on linen hanging strops.

Have you tried this system with and without using a razor?

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Originally Posted by ace

I generally use leather alone without pastes, but sometimes I'll go with leather all by itself, or both.

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Originally Posted by Disburden

I have never met a rock honed razor that couldn't be improved by pastes.

That being said I really like chromium, iron or cerium oxide on linen hanging strops.

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Never used a high grit Nakayama?

I use Chromium Oxide paste on the back side of my SRD Premium Fabric strop and it works great. However, I've been considering getting a Modular Paddle Strop to try out a bunch of combos like sprays with felt. :chapeau

So, better late to the party than not at all, right? Today I picked up a linen shirt and double glass pane picture frame at the thrift store for 3 bucks. I plan to cut and attach the linen to the two glass panes, and attach each of those to wood bases and put a .5 and .25 on and - viola! a homemade bench pasted strop setup. Now if only I could find quality diamond paste at the thrift store...

Seriously though, anyone ever tried a setup like this? Am I going about it all wrong?

I thought about felt instead, thoughts?

Hey guys, any experience with larry's balsa wood strop croox and ironox? work for a new stropper?
thanks

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Originally Posted by noobs

Hey guys, any experience with larry's balsa wood strop croox and ironox? work for a new stropper?
thanks

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Larry's balsa works well. I used it for awhile before moving to using leather for paste.

On balsa both crox and feox are fairly fast cutters so very low lap counts are used.

Also both can leave a bit of a harsh edge. This can be countered most times by good stropping on untreated linen and leather.

Chrome oxide on one side and iron oxide on the other - hanging linen strop.

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Originally Posted by WW243

Have you tried this system with and without using a razor?

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The without a razor mode does produce results. I have thought hard many a time about buying 8-12 more types of strops/materials, 5 or so carats worth of diamonds in various sizes, and a small crate filled with all the strop goop but have resisted and still get remarkably good shaves off of my leather!

The next experiment will be to think about buying more razors without actually pulling the trigger...