Thiers-Issard four sided strop.

[English_Dave]

Dear Badger and Blade forum,

I have recently purchased a Thiers-Issard four sided strop and a tube of paste by the same manufacturer from Classic Shaving. I have four grades of leather to choose to smear Pate A onto - could anyone tell me what face I should use?

Assuming I use one for paste and another for clean stroping - what are the other two for?

The razor I'm attempting to sharpen is a Thiers-Issard Super Gnome 5/8 which has held it's sharpness for the last few weeks with normal stroping on a hanging leather and hasn't killed me.

Thanks in advance for any sterling advice.

Dave

[crankymoose]

Welcome to B&B

typically a different grit of paste is used on each side with the most common paste being diamond paste in increments of 3.0, 1.0, .5 and .25, starting at the coarses grit 3.0 and finishing at .25, another popular finishing paste is cromium oxide which is .5 grit but to some it leaves a smoother feel when shaving

see this thread for more/better info http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?p=348165#post348165

[Tony Miller]

I think TI marks each side as I do so you can keep track of which paste you have put on each. There should be small drilled dimples above the handle, one, two, three and four each so you can remember a progression, coarse to fine. I would guess on theirs four would be the finish side.

Tony