Honemaister strop and paste opinions please!!!

OK, I am seeking the advice of group experience. I want to add Crox and Diamond Spray or Paste. I am looking for a lot of advice.

First Crox is obvious, but do you recommend .25 Diamond only or also .5 Diamond for three options?. Would you recommend three or just two?

Next, Diamond Paste versus Spray recommendations?

Finally, I have a great Medal of Award strop in near mint condition. Both sides of the Linen and Leather are in fantastic shape. Would it be preferable to leave my precious Medal of Award and use paddle strops?

The Strop gives me two identical Linen sides along with Coarse and Fine Leather surfaces. Would you recommend using this or Paddle Strops for the firmer surface.

I can make any size strop paddles using blue jeans instead of Linen and / or Thick Tooling Leather.

So, is it Crox on Coarse leather, .25 Diamond Fine leather? Both on Linen Strop (or Cotton Jeans) and no .5 Diamond? Paddles or Strop? (maybe Felt, but it would be harder to get good inexpensive Felt) :thinking:

Go ahead, mix, match. give me your best recommendations.

Because of the variety of combinations & their effects you may be best to decide what your goals are to refine your search. I only use .5 diamond spray on a felt covered paddle as a means of removing any micro burr from edges prior to returning to the polishing stone for minimal passes. My solution may not suit your intended purpose.

0.25 diamond spray and 0.5 diamond spray edges feel very different. For me the 0.5 edge feels better, the 0.25 feels harsh. It is really up to you to try and see what you like better. I have mine applied on a felt paddle strop.

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Originally Posted by mainaman

0.25 diamond spray and 0.5 diamond spray edges feel very different. For me the 0.5 edge feels better, the 0.25 feels harsh. It is really up to you to try and see what you like better. I have mine applied on a felt paddle strop.

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+1, The .25 feels harsh to me as well.

I prefer to use Paddles for pastes, diamond, crox, etc...and SRD's hard wool felt for .50 diamond spray. I like the .50 DS as a final finisher. Some prefer the hanging strops for pastes, I always leave mine virgin. If I was using crox spray, It'd probably be on wool felt as well. I think the spray excels on that medium.

Paddles are easy to make, and cheap. You can get belt leather, cowhide at Tandy. It comes 3" w x 50' long. It's great for paddles.

Also, I find if you use crox paste after the .25 diamond, it'll take some of the bite out. YMMV.

Thanks Oz, Mainaman and Zib.

OK, good information, from the input so far it looks like I was close on my original thoughts.

My original thoughts in my post were this. After honing and for touch ups was 1st pass on .5 Diamond to refresh the edge or remove honing burrs, 2nd pass on .25 Diamond to polish or remove to refine the edge, then finish on Cro2 to polish the bite of working with diamond.

My stubble is very stiff so I like the idea of the .25, but everybody likes a more comfortable shave (Cro2 being important for this).

It looks like Paddles over Strops for touch ups. My sacred strop is now off the table for consideration.

So to if I understand correctly so far Diamond on Felt seems to help remove Burrs and freshen an edge. That makes sense because the Felt would give a little allowing the edge to be buffed.

Now I realize this next questions is asking for speculation.

If I use .5 Diamond on Felt first, would it be advisable then to use the Cro2 and maybe even the .25 Diamond on Leather paddles to polish?

My thought is there would be less give in tooling leather, so it would be less likely to round off the edge. As a polishing stone would work.

Use whatever leather you want. Rounding on pasted leather is really only an issue if you screw up the stropping to be frank. Over time the give in leather might/will create a convex bevel but I would think the timeframes involved would be long enough that the edge might need rehoning before it became an issue.

James.

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Originally Posted by KindestCutOfAll

Now I realize this next questions is asking for speculation.

If I use .5 Diamond on Felt first, would it be advisable then to use the Cro2 and maybe even the .25 Diamond on Leather paddles to polish?

My thought is there would be less give in tooling leather, so it would be less likely to round off the edge. As a polishing stone would work.

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There is always rounding of the edge even with plain leather . However as Jimbo already hinted, it is microscopic at first & can be corrected with a handful of strokes on on a finisher. Personally , I think your concept of 3 pastes or sprays may be overkill but you won't know till you try. At least now you have some concepts to experiment with.

KindestCutOfAll

Why don't you simplify your choice problem and do this:

.5 diamond spray on felt hanging strop -5 to 10 strokes.
Then 5 to 10 strokes on your finish stone with no water at all [dry].

Then strop and shave. You might like the results.....

Jerry
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i've taken a shave ready edge to my TI paddle loaded with ti's diamond bio paste with 6m 3m 1.0m 0.25my 10 laps on each and 10 on cronium oxide 9over kill but ti recomend this after honing and even finishing on a fine stone.

I tryed it lots of times and i found the edge to be very smooth anmd very sharp indeed , it realy surprised my how well it worked. I did the same with srd padle on felt 0.5 ds 0.25 ds crox on scubbed leather just five or 6 on each one the shave was a pearler . I realy must try shaving of the .5 srd spray on felt as i've not tryed it that much..

gary

OK Oz, I do tend toward overkill. So instead of all three I'm going to use a Felt Paddle with .5 Diamond, then use the finishing stone as you recommend.

I'll go from there and if it feels like it needs nore polish I'll start using Cro2 on a Leather Paddle.

If I am looking for a little more of an edge I'll add .25 on either Felt or Leather.

Awesome! Thanks all for your input.

Keep us posted on your methods & outcomes. :)