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Hello,
Just recently bought a Dovo Razor and a somewhat cheap strop.
My question is how do I take care of my strop, and what paste should I use etc.
I'm all really new to this. I understand what a strop does and all, but my thought is can I strop without paste, and whats the best paste to use for general maintenance? As well what do you do to keep your strop at its best.
Thanks for your time, have a wonderful day/night.
Your wet-shaver enthusiast,
Cubo
Hi there. If by paste you mean abrasive paste, you do not want any on your daily leather strop & many of the fabric strops work quite well without abrasive pastes also. All you really need to maintain your leather strop is rub it with the inside of your wrist or palm of your hand before use. The oils in your skin will do all that's needed.
Leave abrasive pastes alone till later on down the track. They will also each need their own dedicated strop for however many pastes you use. Too easy :)
Yes, You should have one Virgin strop for daily use, nothing on it, but the leather. That's the strop you'll use before you shave, to get your blade ready. I'm a firm believer in using just the palm of your oily hand to condition it. No treatments, No Ballistol, No Neetsfoot Oil, No Soap, No Shave Cream, No Silicone, Nothing, Nada...
I have lot's of strops, not one manufacturer recommends treating it with anything, at all, ever...(At least I haven't seen it)
Pastes are used on strops for honing, not for daily use. You would need a seperate strop, or paddle strop for paste. Some of the common ones are Chromium Oxide, Dovo Pastes, Diamond Pastes, and Cerium Oxide...
I just have to put my two cents in here. Everything everyone above said is true. That being established, if you have a basic strop like mine, one side is finished (the side you typically strop on) and the other side...well, not so much. it is a fairly common practice to paste a stretch of the back for minor blade conditioning. It's been recommended to me--and has served me well--to strop no more than five laps on that every 2 to 3 shaves before normal stropping. the paste (mine is .5 micron chromium dioxide) does a good job of honing without too much danger.
I'm of the school you don't fix what's not broken. I would never hone any razor on some schedule. It gets honed when it needs it which isn't for quite a few shaves. To do excess honing just adds more wear and tear. If you find you need to touch up every few shaves you might want to spend the time touchup honing instead honing up your sharpening skills.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Alighieri