Thread: Homemade pasted strop

Okay i'm going to have a go at turning some basswood I have into a pasted strop this week. I only have one strop which is leather and linen and I don't want to paste onto this. the pastes I have are the dovo red and black crayon type
What I would like to know is:
1 - does the paste work well just on the wood itself as I see a few people mention in other threads?
2 - would it work better to have a leather or linen piece stuck onto it and the paste spread onto that?
3 - how often should you use this strop, is just after honing or every few shaves etc?
4 - how much of the paste do I need to put onto the strop and do I just rub the paste crayon over the wood?

I am still learning and my honing is getting better, but i can still feel some tugging as I shave so any help is appreciated.

The way I like to use the Dovo red and black crayons is to sand the finished, top surface of vegetable-tanned leather to around 150x-180x, to give it some tooth, brushing and vacuuming off all the dust, before adding the paste. To add the paste, I rub the tip of the crayon onto the pad of my thumb, then work this gradually into the sanded leather surface. Once the surface it covered, or smoothed by the paste as it were, it's pasted. There I wait around 48 hours before using for things air-dry and cure. (Also, it's important to wash the thumb and hands off thoroughly afterwards, cleaning out any paste under the fingernails as well.)

As for boards, I would be inclined to use a thin one as I like some flex in my strops (I actually use a hanging pasted strop, which seems a big no-no for some razor enthusiasts). Basswood as a surface I've not used, but with balsa I would encourage the softer red tube paste instead of the crayon, the latter requiring a little pressure in the application. Also, balsa wood is ideally scored along the length to account for twist and other wood movement issues. Basswood being denser, perhaps the crayon would work. If not, then it could be a support for leather, but then, why not other woods as well? How high to sand the basswood as surface, maybe some other folks can chime in here. I suppose it should be some trade-off between desired coarseness for ease of paste loading and some degree of smoothness with the wood in question being harder/denser than leather and balsa.

There are many many ways to go about this. I am yet to hear of anyone trying all the variety of way to make a pasted paddle strop and the grading them. My pasted strop is a paddle, leather on wood. I have been planning and plotting to make a new one, because I would like one with a little flex. My plan it to take a paddle and place small block at each end, then a very thin piece of wood, 1/16 to 1/8, and span it from each of the end block and then put either leather or felt over that. Pretty much my leather prep previous was the same as above.
As for the use. I think those that use them regularly say it is most simple if you develop a weekly, monthly, routine to keep your edge sharp. Along the line of it is easier to keep an edge sharp than to sharpen an edge. Many have gone for years since honing with just regular and pasted stropping.
In my wood shop I used to have the inside of the cereal box that was pasted for keeping chisels sharp. It was very effective as a bench strop too.

thanks for the replies, I have finished a very rough attempt at a pasted strop with a bit of sanded leather on and some of the black dovo paste on it. I lapped a side of the wood down flat and applied the red dovo paste. I'm hoping this will help get me a better experience of shave from the BBW stone until I can afford a new stone (thinking a Norton 4/8k). I did more as a 4 sided strop with the hope of adding more leather to the 2 sides that are not in use at the moment and trying different grades of paste for the fun of it.

I would be very interested in how well this works. Maybe some pictures too.

I just have a green CrOx on a paddle strop and am really intrigued as to how different the Dovo crayons perform.