Thread: Strop material for diamond paste?

Dear Gents;

Let me tell you that i have been working this week with Euclid440's system. Its .5 micron CBN on a paper strop, followed by .125 micron CBN on the other side of the same strop. 20 laps on each side every day. My Ralph Aust 7/8 is as sharp as a double edged blade. Or at least feels that way. You will know it the second you put the edge on your face. On top of that is super smooth. After a while you end up with a stria free edge. At first i didnt believe it, but after a couple of hundred laps i took out my daughter's chemistry lab microscope. A 900X magnification does not lie. So far i had zero irritation and zero cuts/nicks.

A word of caution! This is not for everyone. This level of sharpness is very unforgiving. Your technique most be solid. You must not apply pressure. You have to have a serious preshave routine. Good soap. And you have to take your time shaving with an edge this sharp. The reward is worth it. The closest and smoothest shave you can have.

Euclid440, thank you very much. I will keep experimenting. I really like my results so far....

Best regards,

Pepe Peña


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Interesting read. I wasn't sure I believed in the stria free edge until I made one. Agreed not for everyone. I used CrOx to get there, so perhaps less keen, but similar concept I believe. Too sharp, neither me nor my face liked it. Really close shave though, I'll give it that.

Perhaps that just means my technique can use improvement.

One question, did you strop on the leather after this?

Originally Posted by Dieseld

One question, did you strop on the leather after this?

Absolutely not!


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Am I reading that right? .125 CBN? That's gotta be one heck of an edge. I imagine leather would just be dialing the edge back and scuffing it up at that point.

Dear Marshal;

Technique is one of those things that can keep improving forever... or adjusting!

I´ve seen that most people in this forum is anti hi-grit. That is ok. We should strive for an effortless, close and smooth shave. Granted.

BUT!, a few of us are not only rebels. We are also salmons. We swim against the flow. Not because we want an edge so sharp. Let me tell you that part of my story in a nutshell:

I began wet shaving and i was happy as a clam. Then, walking along the shaving stuff in Walgreens looking for some Old Spice aftershave, i saw with the corner of my eye a $20 Van der Hagen double edged safety razor, with butterfly doors. Puff! I am a nostalgic nut. When i was a kid, my grandpa used to give my brother and me his butterfly razor, sans blade, of course. Damm if i know that brand it was. He also gave us kids a can of goo. We had the best of times, playing with grandpa stuff and pretending we were men. I guess grandpa had a ball also, showing his little boys the way. So, i bought the razor, completely oblivious to its quality and the adequacy of the price. Turns out that the VDH is a pretty good shaver, mild, but good.

So i started to acquire safety razors. Both DE and SE, with the pretext that i only use them to shave the back of my head (and then my head), since my face was reserved for my beloved straights. After you shave your head with an Above The Tie SE2, with a Feather Super Pro single edged blade in it, everything else seems dull. Including my straights. The good thing -other than that great BBS- is that you really learn technique, or you bleed to death. jajajaja... Seriously, if your shaving mantra is not ¨let the razor do the work¨ , you are in trouble. Now, shaving with anything less seems pointless. Yes, you could call me a sharpness snob. Well, it all began looking for a few memories in a bottle of Old Spice. I found them in a butterfly razor. Now i am addicted to the edge. Just to honor grandpa...

So, that is why i swim against the flow. That is why i like the .125 CBN. I know not all steel is able to hold it. But the fact that my Ralph Aust can do it keeps my world going round n round.

Best regards,

Pepe Peña

My dear friends;

I concluded my experimentations with the hi-grit stropping with CBN and my beloved Ralph Aust 7/8. It was a success 100%.

Now it is Geneva Pyramid´s turn. It is a great restore (scales and all) done by gssixguns. Well, of course. He is so cool and generous (with his knowledge and all). So, he restored the Geneva Pyramid and honed it with a shapton progression up to 30K. Very good up to that point.

So, i took that blessed edge and strop it 60 times with the .5 micron CBN, and 60 more with the .125 micron CBN. Simply put, it was the best shave of my life... Well, maybe it was not. It was as good as the best shave of my life, but it was 200,000 times easier. This feel as sharp as a DE. Well, go about your face without the safety bar! You have to pay attention. Nevertheless, the shave was super close, nic-irritation free, smooth on the skin, and a total pleasure.

I want to thank Marty (euclid440) for introducing me to this level of grit. He has been so kind and generous...

I will keep posting my results with the different razors that i have.

Best regards,

Pepe Peña

Originally Posted by Euclid440

For both Diamond and CBN I use a hanging, paper strop, made from Pellon interfacing, a paper fabric use to line and stiffen clothing, (collars and shirt plackets). It is very strong, cuts easily, inexpensive, readily available and can take repeated wetting and drying cycles.

Could you show your hanging paper strop, please, to understand what is the Pellon paper?

Pellon is a brand name of a paper, fabric stiffener, used for stiffening clothing for things like shirt plackets and collars, it is sewn between two pieces of fabric.

It looks similar to Tyvek paper house wrap, a bit thicker, but about as strong. It holds paste well and is available at any fabric store for about 2-5 dollars a yard for a 36X40 inch piece. It has no abrasives and can be wet repeatedly, dries in minutes.

Thank you Euclid, seems at this shore this material is known as Vlieseline:

http://www.vlieseline.com/~/media/Im...ing-white.ashx
http://www.vlieseline.com/~/media/Im...2-312_W_1.ashx
Sew-In Interlining M 12 - Vlieseline