Thread: Hone, Pasted Strop?

I'm new to all this and I'm trying to gather as much information as I can.

I'm a little intimidated by what I've read about honing, so I just wanted to clarify something.

I realize different people use different techniques but, to put it simply, can a pasted strop fully replace a hone or is a pasted strop used solely for between-hone tune-ups?

If you're using a hone and a strop, do you hone then leather strop? And, before each shave, linen strop then leather strop?

Sorry if my questions are idiotic, it's just I've plunged face first into as much information as I can physically take in and now I'm trying to sort through it in my head. ["Dumb-looking" emoticon goes here]

Wiki offers good advise on this. The pasted strop is a light honing tool and I have one that I love. Without it, I would need a stone honing more often, but using it, the time razors go between stone honings is a long time and it keeps my straights sharply tuned for great shaves. As always, a lot of variables are involved between razors.

You know when its time for a stone honing because the razor shaves with a "pulling" action that the pasted strop can not help.

Welcome to SRP! Just get going, its the only way!

Pabster

Originally Posted by DerekW

I'm new to all this and I'm trying to gather as much information as I can.

I'm a little intimidated by what I've read about honing, so I just wanted to clarify something.

I realize different people use different techniques but, to put it simply, can a pasted strop fully replace a hone or is a pasted strop used solely for between-hone tune-ups?

Welcome, Derek. Honing can be intimidating and frustrating at
first, so if you're going to undertake that learning process it's
important to be setup to succeed. This means have more than
one razor and that the one you shave with is a honemeister
edge. If you've got that, all you need is the patienceto learn on
your `practice' edges until they're shaving how you want them to.

To answer your second question, pastes are best used as a final
polish to a freshly sharpened edge, or to restore the edge of one
that is just starting to lose some sharpness due to regular use.
It won't bring bring a dull razor back to shave-ready sharpness.

Good luck in all your endeavors!

- Scott

Hi Derek, what I do is have a regular leather and linen non pasted strop as my daily driver. I also have a paddle strop with paste for adding keenness to a razor if I feel it might need a bit of a touch up. Some people add some strokes on paste following honing to make an even keener edge and some do not. Paste is an optional tool. Some guys use a vintage barber hone to refresh an edge. They are not made anymore but can be found in the classifieds, ebay or if you luck out in a local flea market or antique shop.

I always strop on linen or webbed fabric and then on leather before each shave. Following the shave I do a few round trips (20) on the leather again after rinsing the blade and drying it with a tissue. Then I wipe it with a silicone gun cloth impregnated with an additional rust preventative. Store it away from a moist environment.

Fantastic, very much appreciated.