Looking For A Detailed Explanation

Hello gents!

Better late than never, I am just learning the immense value of strops and their proper use. Until now I have had a strop and been using it for a few years but with less success than others seem to have in maintaining an edge between honing... so I found myself wanting to refresh my edge on the hones sooner than i should.
I'm going to make or buy a paddle strop. Can you guys fill me in on:
1. What is the rough leather used for as opposed to the smooth leather.
2. Is it good to have different paddles and strops for different pastes? And also have a strop free of paste...?
3. What have I not asked that is pertinent?

Thanks for the info. This is something I've seriously overlooked and am going to figure out! :)

Whoeeeee!
Use the search space at the top right of the forum. Click after writing in your request. Do not use the magnifying glass. that goes to a net search.
~Richard

A lot of what you asked is about personal preference. To use paste or not is a matter of what you have found works well for you. I use leather and stone, and I am quite happy that combination. Some are all about this paste or that and some even use a progression of different pastes. However you do need a different strop for each paste you use and a clean leather for your final strop. Even that has it's ymmv issues. A rough leather I am not sure about, unless you are referring to a suede, in which case it is used before the smooth leash in place of linen or other fabric.
Other pertinent issues may be having a flexible surface under the leather to help it adjust to how the blade rides on it and the other is to have a changeable surface like the magnetic surface.

I started out with the progression of 1-3-8-12K and then the green crox. after about a 1 1/2 years or so I added the 5K naniwa and the 20K suehiro and stropped with the English bridle strop. since I started this I have not used any paste at all. I have one razor as soon as it needs a touch up i'm going to try a linen treated with the diamond spray but the green crox I believe will not be used again. That Suehiro 20K is a wonderful stone.

The rough leather can be used with paste, but I think they work better with the spray versions. TI has the biodiamond paste too, but they are insanely expensive for the amount of product you get-at least to me they are very expensive. You can also use the rough leather as a prep, like linen, before going to smooth leather. However, I think linen works better in this regard.

1. The rougher leather is used like linen.

2. Different substrates eg felt, linen, leather and balsa can make the pastes/sprays perform differently so even the same thing applied to different substrates will create different results. You will need a separate piece of substrate for each paste/spray.

3. Cushioning as mentioned by rez is something else done under substrates that normally wouldn't provide much by themselves to help mellow thier effects. Often seen on vintage leather paddles. The other way was slots in the paddle to provide flexibility. You don't need paddles for this either. You could use bench or hanging strops and other substrates like nylon webbing or pellen are cheap and easy to work with for testing to see what you might like best.


Do some searching and read up there are lots of variables and combinations and in the end its ymmv tp what works for you. Good luck

Thanks for the great info! This is already a lot to digest at the moment. I think I'm gonna have to read through these posts a couple few times, find some more reading to familiarize myself with all these techniques, and various products, and then start trying them out to see what works for me. I'm sure I'll get it best with hands on experience.
When I was reading about stropping yesterday, a lot of this stuff was a bit confusing, its like an exact science but there's more than one formula to get the same result, but i think its making more sense now.
I already searched through posts but didn't find what you guys just put down and it was exactly the kind of organized info I was looking for.
Thanks again! :)