How To Use a Pasted Balsa Strop

[camoloc]

the standard is around 1 to 2 weeks for relapping and a recoating.

so if youre burning through a lot of razors (work and getting collection up to snuff).......I'd assume on might consider earlier than a week????

or......

roll on it's good.

this is a hard one to gauge as you cant see or feel condition of diamond coating. in other words.....hard to tell when it has degraded other than results.

camo

 

[rbscebu]

the standard is around 1 to 2 weeks for relapping and a recoating.

so if youre burning through a lot of razors (work and getting collection up to snuff).......I'd assume on might consider earlier than a week????

or......

roll on it's good.

this is a hard one to gauge as you cant see or feel condition of diamond coating. in other words.....hard to tell when it has degraded other than results.

camo

I first relapped and pasted after 2000 laps on my 0.5um. Didn't notice a difference. Did it again after another 4000 laps. Noticed the difference.

Now I relap and pasteonce 0.5um after 3000, 0.25um after 4000 and 0.1um after 5000. Works well for me. That works out at about once every 2 to 3 months. My 3 x 5g diamond pastes should last me 20 to 30 years.

 

[Slash McCoy]

the standard is around 1 to 2 weeks for relapping and a recoating.

so if youre burning through a lot of razors (work and getting collection up to snuff).......I'd assume on might consider earlier than a week????

or......

roll on it's good.

this is a hard one to gauge as you cant see or feel condition of diamond coating. in other words.....hard to tell when it has degraded other than results.

camo

I go more like 1 to 2 months for a re-application. Every second or third application, I also lap the balsa. It will load up with swarf after a while. When it is solid black, time to lap.

There should NEVER be a coating, at all. Never. No coating. Non. Nein. Nix. The diamond should be deeply embedded into the balsa. No coating whatsoever. Coating will interfere with getting optimum best greatest results.

 

[camoloc]

I go more like 1 to 2 months for a re-application. Every second or third application, I also lap the balsa. It will load up with swarf after a while. When it is solid black, time to lap.

There should NEVER be a coating, at all. Never. No coating. Non. Nein. Nix. The diamond should be deeply embedded into the balsa. No coating whatsoever. Coating will interfere with getting optimum best greatest results.

roger that.....coating was a poor choice of phrasing. I meant this pretty much as invisible layer or coating that cant be seen......but you know is there that was spread out during application.

camo

 

[macintoshBR]

My diamond pastes from Techdiamondtools have finally arrived. It took 4 months due to Covid!!

Next I will flatten my balsa strops and apply. Looking forward to trying the pasted strop edges soon

 

[rbscebu]

My diamond pastes from Techdiamondtools have finally arrived. It took 4 months due to Covid!!

Next I will flatten my balsa strops and apply. Looking forward to trying the pasted strop edges soon

You will not be disappointed. Just remember to apply the paste VERY sparingly.

 

[macintoshBR]

Here they are: ready to roll

I wasn’t planning it but I will test then now with my Dovo Best (Worst) Quality beater

 

[macintoshBR]

Overall very good shave, above average for this blade. It was quite smooth across the board. I felt the alum block stung a little more than usual, but I could be wrong. It's just one data point, but I would say I can see the diamond pastes tuning the edges up a notch after an already very good 1u lapping film edge

 

[smithabrian]

I followed the instructions at the beginning of this thread and I am very pleased with the results. My razor has never been sharper. I wrapped the 3 pasted balsa planks in separate handkerchiefs to keep them from rubbing on anything while in storage. About 60 passes with the blade on each balsa strop, coarse to fine, and the edge was phenomenal! A whole new shaving experience. Thanks for the tips.


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[rbscebu]

I followed the instructions at the beginning of this thread and I am very pleased with the results. My razor has never been sharper. I wrapped the 3 pasted balsa planks in separate handkerchiefs to keep them from rubbing on anything while in storage. About 60 passes with the blade on each balsa strop, coarse to fine, and the edge was phenomenal! A whole new shaving experience. Thanks for the tips.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If you maintain that edge with 60 or so laps on a 0.1u hanging balsa strop after each shave, you will find that the edge just keeps on improving! Of course I still strop on clean leather before each shave.

This edge improvement became unnoticeable to me after about 20 to 30 two-pass shaves but I maintained the maintenance routine to keep that atomic edge.

 

[smithabrian]

Will do. Thanks!


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[Tomo]

Epic fail.

Everything was ready to go. Balsa was perfectly lapped and labeled on the bottom. Two part clear epoxy was mixed up and ready to to. Acrylic cut to the perfect size. It was time to finally mount the backing plates to my little used 0.5u and 0.25u balsa strops.

Everything went on perfectly. Rubbed the pieces together a little to bed in the glue. Lined it up flush on all sides and wiped of the excess. Perfect.

All I had to do was wait 5 minutes for the epoxy to go off but no. It might work a little better if I weigh this down... On goes the Terrazo Paver. And a tool box for good measure. When I lifted the paver up after 10 minutes I was expecting the perfect result. This is what I got.....

Not sure how. Not sure why. All I know is that you get one chance with epoxy. All the shops are shut in Melbourne for the next six weeks so I won’t even be able to try again any time soon. I can feel a PIF coming on. Next time round it will be a more ideal 20mm acrylic and 12.5mm balsa. There’s always a silver lining. At least I found the right glue for the job...

 

[rbscebu]

I feel your disappointment. Next time use rubber glue (it's called Rugby glue here in the Philippines). It won't stop the balsa sliding like yours did, but at least you can remove the balsa with difficulty. Then you can clean up the acrylic and start again.

Also you need to remember that your balsa will not last forever. It needs to be replaced occasionally, so rubber glue is a better alternative.

I didn't have access to 20mm thick acrylic so for my substrate I used 6mm thick ceramic tile with 20mm thick structural PVC foam epoxy glued to the underside of the tile, all cut to size. Then I rubber glued my balsa to the tile. A bit more work but this has worked just as well as acrylic and is lighter over all.

 

[KrstGor]

Here they are: ready to roll

View attachment 1131689

I wasn’t planning it but I will test then now with my Dovo Best (Worst) Quality beater

Going back to Koraat related question (as mine has just arrived at last) - so, what do you do with it?

Do you balsa-strop the Koraat WITHOUT tape? Any improvement?

 

[macintoshBR]

Going back to Koraat related question (as mine has just arrived at last) - so, what do you do with it?

Do you balsa-strop the Koraat WITHOUT tape? Any improvement?

I don’t. The Koraat only touches leather and linen strops (without tape), clean and occasionally with CrOx

 

[KrstGor]

I don’t. The Koraat only touches leather and linen strops (without tape), clean and occasionally with CrOx

OKAY, so how about the "shave quality" - sharpness, smoothness, closeness...?

Does the 3K/10K honed Koraat feels (vastly) inferior to Balsa-treated Dovo?

 

[macintoshBR]

OKAY, so how about the "shave quality" - sharpness, smoothness, closeness...?

Does the 3K/10K honed Koraat feels (vastly) inferior to Balsa-treated Dovo?

absolutely not. On the contrary. My Koraat is 18 months old and it seems to get better every day. Dovo hardens its blades up to 59-60 HRC, while Koraat has recently published a test on Facebook showing his edges go to 65+ HRC. The Koraat is much harder and therefore its edge retention is second to none. Additionally, I strongly believe Ulrik is a much better honer than me so it’s hard to think I could make a Dovo beater outperforms the Koraat, even with diamond pastes.

now, I think maybe a Wacker treated with diamond pastes could be something nice to shave with.

 

[KrstGor]

absolutely not. On the contrary. My Koraat is 18 months old and it seems to get better every day. Dovo hardens its blades up to 59-60 HRC, while Koraat has recently published a test on Facebook showing his edges go to 65+ HRC. The Koraat is much harder and therefore its edge retention is second to none. Additionally, I strongly believe Ulrik is a much better honer than me so it’s hard to think I could make a Dovo beater outperforms the Koraat, even with diamond pastes.

now, I think maybe a Wacker treated with diamond pastes could be something nice to shave with.

Tnx so much for the info. I'll be shaving with my Koraat for the very first time tomorrow. Hopefully it will cut as great as it looks

 

[macintoshBR]

Overall very good shave, above average for this blade. It was quite smooth across the board. I felt the alum block stung a little more than usual, but I could be wrong. It's just one data point, but I would say I can see the diamond pastes tuning the edges up a notch after an already very good 1u lapping film edge

I was back home this morning and tried the Dovo Best (Worst) Quality again. I believe the harshness of the first shave with diamond pastes was related to the fact that I did not rub the excess paste from the strops. This time I used a piece of paper napkin and rubbed the strops good, then did another 30 laps on the 0.1um strop.

Well, I have to say: I AM A BELIEVER!
I am very satisfied with the Dovo's edge. I never thought this blade could shave so well and comfortably. No burn from the alum this time. The shave was fantastic, on par with my high quality razors honed on 1um lapping film.

Thanks for the knowledge sharing in this thread. I am looking forward to taking one of my better blades to the diamond pasted strops this week.

 

[CCR]

Ok I got a nice piece of balsa and i just cut the first block off.
Question- the balsa must be kept raw right? Or it can be threated with some water protection sort of coating?
View attachment 1111835