Thread: Strop paste? How and should I?

Hi all,

I’m looking for some advice and I was hoping some of you more experienced shavers could shine a little light on something that I don’t really know anything about....

I’ve been straight shaving for about a year or so now, my razors are honed and I have my stropping technique correct to maintain them, I take every care I can to keep them at their best. Now however, I’m wondering about strop paste; the ins, outs and how to use them as I’m blind to this. I’ve ofcoutlrse heard a lot of talk concerning paste but like I said I have no idea where to start, so....

Should I look at using strop paste?
What paste should I use to prolong the period between honing?
What side of my strop should I use?
And how and when should do I use paste?

I know that’s a lot to answer but I’d certainly like people views and opinions, the good, bad and the ugly.

Thank you in advance

Mark.

My personal preference is to use strop paste. I use Theirs Issard strop paste from The Art of Shaving on the canvas Strop. I strop on canvas first and finish on leather. I find it prolongs edge life and actually improves it some. I have 8 razors in my rotation and touch up the edge one to two times a year.

I use chromium oxide on balsa and diamond spray on hard felt to touch up between honing. I do have a utility strop with CrOx on it, but that one is made with relatively cheap leather glued to a piece of hardwood and only gets used after a major edge reset.

Other than that, my regular stropping involves untreated canvas and shell leather on a hanging strop.

This is one of the threads that came up when I typed "strop paste" into the forum search box and it may get you a start.

https://straightrazorpalace.com/stro...-tutorial.html

Chromium Oxide is available in a powder, spray or stick form. There are a different ways of using according to who you are talking to. Personally I use a hard felt hanging strop sprayed with the Crox. For maintaining the edge I do my regular pre shave stropping on linen and leather and then to 10 round trips on the Crox sprayed strop. I wipe the blade off before using to get rid of any Crox remaining on the blade.

Bob

So here's my 2 cents worth...

I own two honing stones - a 1K to set the bevel and a 6K to polish the blade a little. The trick here is looking at the blade under magnification so see how you are progressing. Sometimes you have to ink the edge to get a true depiction of the grind. Then I put the razors through a progression of diamond pasted strops on canvas - Start with Chromium Oxide, move to a 1.0 micron diamond pasted canvas strop, then to a 0.5 micron diamond pasted canvas strop, and finish the process with a 0.25 diamond pasted canvas strop. Now then I'm weird! I now move to a piece of bubble glass and use cigar ash (finely ground) with honing oil and this really makes the edge keen. Then I just use a piece of bubble glass and honing oil to smooth it out. Then to the leather strop (Canvas and leather). My blades are smooth and comfortable and I've never had a bad shave since using this process. I use the two pass method and always BBS afterwards.

It's all personal preference and shave ready is what works for you and your face! Comfort and performance!

reading the posts I probably have been doing it all wrong but I have never had such good results. I have been using a paddle board with cow leather on both sides. On one side I applied .5 micron chromium oxide paste and the other plain dressed leather. After 5 or 10 passes on both sides of the paddle I wipe the blade and then go to my leather strop for 20 to 30 passes. Prior to that every couple of months I use a 4000 and 8000 wet stone. My blades have never been so comfortable shaving.

Originally Posted by Tony A

reading the posts I probably have been doing it all wrong but I have never had such good results. I have been using a paddle board with cow leather on both sides. On one side I applied .5 micron chromium oxide paste and the other plain dressed leather. After 5 or 10 passes on both sides of the paddle I wipe the blade and then go to my leather strop for 20 to 30 passes. Prior to that every couple of months I use a 4000 and 8000 wet stone. My blades have never been so comfortable shaving.

Sounds good to me. I follow the same process, but usually finish off the stone progression using a coticule or jnat and final finish with a Vermio.

I used .5 and .25 chromium oxide paste on my SRD modular strop. I apply it to the smooth leather and I can see a substantial difference in the performance of the razor. Much smoother shave and the blade is definitely sharper. Using the modular strop enables me to keep the blade flatter and thus ensures a better result.