Thread: Noob question on pastes and sprays

I am about a month into learning how to shave with a straight razor. I am noticing some tugging and pulling with my razor now that standard strapping is not taking care of (prior to each shave I do ten passes on poly webbing and fifty pass on leather). I suspect poor shaving and stropping technique has dulled my blade. I want to try refreshing my razor and had some questions. Is there a difference between what chromium oxide and diamond spray will do? Or are they just different means to the same end? I also see that there are different grades of diamond spray. Do people use multiple grades of the diamond spray to get finer edges? Finally, would you recommend a noob like me try diamond spray or chromium oxide first? Thanks, Ethan

Diamond sprays are rather harsher on your face imo. I have 1 micron diamond for badly used razors and follow that with lynn's chrom ox in I believe .5 micron .this maintains my rough and ready razor rather nicely imo your milage may vary of course.welcome to srp by the way.

Since the means of using either sprays or pastes involves stropping and you already suspect your stropping is not "up to speed." what do you expect to accomplish by adding abrasive to the mix? Get the razor rehoned and continue learning. Otherwise you will have razor even more messed up and a contaminated strop to add to your misery.

I prefer oxide pastes over diamond but I may be biased. There are many ways to accomplish what you want and they are all valid. Try both and see which you like the best.

I think my technique has gotten a lot better stropping. I am much more comfortable now and wanted to try this route before rehoning.

That's fine, just remember you can't effectively "un-paste" or "un-spray" a strop

Originally Posted by Splashone

Since the means of using either sprays or pastes involves stropping and you already suspect your stropping is not "up to speed." what do you expect to accomplish by adding abrasive to the mix? Get the razor rehoned and continue learning. Otherwise you will have razor even more messed up and a contaminated strop to add to your misery.

+1 I don't like paste either, just something else to keep up with and also kind of messy. I have found a finisher makes better edges anyway.

Different paste do different things, depending on the shape and size of the grit. Generally Diamond will sharpen more aggressively and Chrome Oxide will smooth more, while also adding sharpness. Both are abrasive strops removing microscopic amounts of metal.

Firstly, you problem is a stropping issue and common to novice stroppers, too much pressure and in the wrong places. If you use excessive pressure the whole razor pushes down and the strop roll up over the spine and the edge. As it rolls over the edge it curls the thin edge and can break or abrade the edge. Just one stroke can damage or dull it.

To prevent this issue, keep the strop taught, use very light pressure, and or put a bit of pressure on the spine, lifting the edge by putting your finger on the spine on the push stroke and your thumb on the spine on the pull stroke. Always keep the spine on the strop.

Or just use lite pressure, weight of the blade, while stropping and use more laps at least 100.

The damage to your edge can possibly be corrected by proper stropping, but paste will do so much quicker. .5 Diamond is great for reviving an edge and Chrome Oxide for smoothing and weekly maintenance, will keep you shaving for a long, long time, years.

For a novice I recommend a pasted paddle strop to prevent a rolled edge. Cut a 3 X12 inch piece of foam core board and paste the rough side with quality Chrome Oxide 3 in X’s. Just remember to use lite pressure.

I add to the above post by Euclid,,,you might also try to lay your hanging strop on a flat surface and go a couple hundred laps to see if you can improve that edge. A paddle strop takes some of the learning curve out of it and laying your hanger flat will help.

Where are you in the world? There may be member near by to help. I have all the pastes and prefer .5 crox on balsa. Saves my hanging strops from being soiled. You may also look at finish hones or barbers honed for touch ups