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Poor man's strop and crox balsa

Hello there,

I think some users here have tried to use the poor man's strop kit form whippedog together with pasted balsa strop.

I bought it together with my first shave ready straight razor. Yet to arrive to my address.

How should I use the crox pasted balsa to maintain the edge? How long do you think I would need a stone to refresh the edge?

Thanks

P. S. More question will come when I get it. Lol
 
My poor man's strop from Larry is the one I learned stropping on and used it when I got in to SR shaving again a year ago. Larry eill send detailed instructions in his package.
 
Hello there,

I think some users here have tried to use the poor man's strop kit form whippedog together with pasted balsa strop.

I bought it together with my first shave ready straight razor. Yet to arrive to my address.

How should I use the crox pasted balsa to maintain the edge? How long do you think I would need a stone to refresh the edge?

Thanks

P. S. More question will come when I get it. Lol
Had a look at their website.

This is new to me, I use diamond pasted balsa strops, but I have never used CrOx or Iron Oxcide on balsa before. I would think the principle remains the same.

From what I see on their website, the balsa is covered on one side with the CrOx (green) and the other side with Iron Oxide (red). I would be worried that it may be easy to contaminate the red side with particles from the green side. The red side would be your finer or higher grit side.

Worth a try at least, so if it was me, I would strop the razor 50 laps, spine leading, on the green side first. Then clean the razor thoroughly before stropping for 50 laps on the red side. Clean the razor. Then strop on clean leather like normal before shaving.

After every shave strop only on the red side for 50 laps, then clean leather.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
.... How long do you think I would need a stone to refresh the edge?
That will depend a lot on you, things like:
  • Your shaving technique.
  • Your stropping technique.
  • The quality of edge that you are prepared to shave with.
The steel alloy and heat treatment will also be a factor.

If you follow @Biltong & Boerewors' advice and don't strop incorrectly, you may never need a stone to refresh the edge.

If your budget is limited and you decide that you want a decent refresher stone, an Adaee 12k natural for well under USD 50 works well on high carbon steel blades (maybe not so well on stainless steel blades).
 
I'm not sure how crox behaves on a balsa paddle vs. a hanging strop, but on a hanging strop I would only do 6-8 laps, max, maybe twice a month. If you find it takes more laps or more frequency, your razor needs to be honed. I would probably ask Larry directly for his recommendations.

Make sure to clean the blade well after the crox, you don't want to contaminate your leather strop.
 
I have rich man's and poor man's strops from whipped dog. The wide one needs a little something because it has such a light draw. The paddle strop has a very heavy draw.

As for the questions in the OP - use the CROX and iron oxide in that order when your edge goes a little dull. Be sure to tape the spine first as I believe this is how Larry hones his razors, and indeed most razors seem to be honed this way unless I am mistaken.
 
Hello there,

I think some users here have tried to use the poor man's strop kit form whippedog together with pasted balsa strop.

I bought it together with my first shave ready straight razor. Yet to arrive to my address.

How should I use the crox pasted balsa to maintain the edge? How long do you think I would need a stone to refresh the edge?

Thanks

P. S. More question will come when I get it. Lol
If you got a good fresh edge it should last you somewhere between 50-100 shaves just by stropping on linen and leather. I would not touch a balsa before I feel the edge starting to drop off. This will off course depend on many factors. I get two to three shaves off a de blade.
The first time you use the balsa you may only need 10 passes. After 50 passes you are using it more as a hone. You may be better off going back to your finishing stone and only doing a few passes on balsa in my opinion.
 
Had a look at their website.

This is new to me, I use diamond pasted balsa strops, but I have never used CrOx or Iron Oxcide on balsa before. I would think the principle remains the same.

From what I see on their website, the balsa is covered on one side with the CrOx (green) and the other side with Iron Oxide (red). I would be worried that it may be easy to contaminate the red side with particles from the green side. The red side would be your finer or higher grit side.

Worth a try at least, so if it was me, I would strop the razor 50 laps, spine leading, on the green side first. Then clean the razor thoroughly before stropping for 50 laps on the red side. Clean the razor. Then strop on clean leather like normal before shaving.

After every shave strop only on the red side for 50 laps, then clean leather.

this is how I started years ago and it's a fine intro. above is the jist of it. you can go a long way with this set up until you'll need to go to a stone/film for a reset. you should be able to get several shaves from the blade without going to the balsa for touch up adjustments. however, as soon as you feel a degradation in the edge, the less work you'll have to do to correct that, if that makes sense.

in my experience, a CBN or diamond on balsa creates a slightly smoother, very sharp/keen edge. Crox/FeOx is just kinda harsh for the first few shaves until it settles down. anything below 1 micron (CrOx is .5-ish, FeOx .3-25) is overly sharp and harsh on the face to me, unless you go to a .1 micron diamond that just smooths everything out. and if you do end up with diamond pastes, and using the .5/.25/.1 system of @Slash McCoy's, doing a post shave .1 touch up every time, means you'll really never need to go to anything else, unless you really ding up your edge.

I found that using lapping film to be the cheapest, easiest way to get consistently repeatable good edges. when I was doing film, I stopped at 1 micron, then the 1 mic on whet copy paper for a slight cushion and convexing of the edge, for a smooth face feel. I didn't like going below 1 micron until I tried one of Slash's .1 edges.

learn to shave well with what you have, then learn to hone. rocks are a lot harder to dial in than film/balsa touchups, and trying to learn to shave and hone at the same time is frustratingly difficult because of the number of variables. getting a good rock edge is satisfying, once all the other aspects are manageable by you. I just think getting each thing sorted is easier when it's one at a time.
 
I tend to get 9-12 months of shaving off normally stropping with leather between mailing my straight for sharpening, closer to 6 maybe when I started because poor technique.

Given the balsa and other things you're doing, likely less. People here refer to doing more because it's a hobby and they like to. You're welcome to of course try and do more edge maintenance, but it's not going to be meaningfully necessary for quite a while. If this is your first straight I would suggest focusing on learning shaving technique because learning edge maintenance won't be necessary until after you've gotten that anyway. Think too much about edge maintenance and you'll be quick to think it'll make up for technique, maintenance is a distraction when you're learning because it's really not necessary - technique is
 
I tend to get 9-12 months of shaving off normally stropping with leather between mailing my straight for sharpening, closer to 6 maybe when I started because poor technique.

Given the balsa and other things you're doing, likely less. People here refer to doing more because it's a hobby and they like to. You're welcome to of course try and do more edge maintenance, but it's not going to be meaningfully necessary for quite a while. If this is your first straight I would suggest focusing on learning shaving technique because learning edge maintenance won't be necessary until after you've gotten that anyway. Think too much about edge maintenance and you'll be quick to think it'll make up for technique, maintenance is a distraction when you're learning because it's really not necessary - technique is
Great tips. I have about 40 - 50 shaves this year with a shavette. I enjoy it and I think I get as nice shaves as with a De blade razor now.

My current challenge is to adapt to the straight razor. So far I have cut the strop in several parts and I am not sure if the edge is not ruined during the stropping or not... I think the razor is sharp but on the other side I find it not that comfortable anymore. Maybe the edge is damaged.

It is very difficult to give up to the ac shavette when you get excellent shaves with zero maintenance.

But I don't want to give up yet. I got some films (no high grid for the bevel unfortunately) and a good friend is helping me with a shave ready razor to try it. Probably I would need a stone bevel, a diamond plate and a new strop for the future. So good things are ahead and other items are required also.
 
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