Hanging vs. Paddle Strop for CO2.

[JonnyAngel]

My birthday is in a couple of weeks and Ive been fancying a nice strop for CO2 paste. Im looking at the Tony Miller Paddle Strops or the Straight Razor Designs new Wool Felt Hanging Strops. http://straightrazordesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37&products_id=894
Gentleman, what are your thoughts?

 

[Chimensch]

I don't have any evidence to support my opinion, just a reasoning process. I reason that, because a hanging strop is slacker, it has more capacity to "round" the edge. This has little effect when using plain leather because the leather is not abrasive, but becomes important when using abrasive paste. I think that a hanging strop will round the edge faster than a stiffer paddle strop and cause the razor to need to be honed more often. For this reason, I have always used a paddle strop when using pastes. Also, since there are four-sided paddle strops available, you can use it to apply a succession of pastes. For a while, I used a four-sided paddle strop with Dovo red and black, CrOx and 0.25 micron diamond paste. I eventually gave up using pastes, but that's another story.

 

[leighton]

For crox, I can't see any advantage to the wool felt strop over linen or leather.

If you want to save money, you can make your own paddle strop, go to your leather store, pick up a piece of leather, go to the hardware store, get a spindle used for table legs, glue the leather to the spindle, and voila!

Or you can pay Tony to do it for you. Or, another option is to ask around and see if someone would be willing to make one for you. I have not found that the quality of the leather makes much difference, if any.

 

[mparker762]

Paddles are generally better for pastes because there's less room for error and you don't need the speed that hanging strops provide.

While it's true that a pasted hangar will produce an arched bevel, a moderate amount of arching isn't really harmful. The big danger with a pasted hanger is that in a moment of inattention you allow too much slack in the strop or use too much pressure and the edge gets wiped right off the razor.

I have a couple of pasted hanging strops with various levels of abrasives, because I don't like narrow hones so they are a good solution for sharpening razors with geometry issues. But when I use them I have to make sure that they are pulled very tight.

What is not as often noted is that an unpasted hanging strop will also produce an arched bevel over time, at least the linen side will. You also have to be careful with them because they can kill an edge if you're careless, though linen isn't as aggressive as paste. But if you're using unpasted linen it's worth the risk because linen is slow enough that you need the longer stroke length that the hanger provides. I've got an 8" long unpasted linen strop and it can easily take 50 or 75 laps on the linen each day, but on a hanger that is only 20-40 laps and takes about a third of the time.

 

[JonnyAngel]

Paddles are generally better for pastes because there's less room for error and you don't need the speed that hanging strops provide.

While it's true that a pasted hangar will produce an arched bevel, a moderate amount of arching isn't really harmful. The big danger with a pasted hanger is that in a moment of inattention you allow too much slack in the strop or use too much pressure and the edge gets wiped right off the razor.

I have a couple of pasted hanging strops with various levels of abrasives, because I don't like narrow hones so they are a good solution for sharpening razors with geometry issues. But when I use them I have to make sure that they are pulled very tight.

What is not as often noted is that an unpasted hanging strop will also produce an arched bevel over time, at least the linen side will. You also have to be careful with them because they can kill an edge if you're careless, though linen isn't as aggressive as paste. But if you're using unpasted linen it's worth the risk because linen is slow enough that you need the longer stroke length that the hanger provides. I've got an 8" long unpasted linen strop and it can easily take 50 or 75 laps on the linen each day, but on a hanger that is only 20-40 laps and takes about a third of the time.

Right now I have a TM Latigo with the genuine linen. Hows does the unpasted linen effect the edge?

 

[mparker762]

Right now I have a TM Latigo with the genuine linen. Hows does the unpasted linen effect the edge?

Linen, even unpasted, will slowly sharpen the razor. It will slowly wear the bevel into an arched shape like a pasted strop will, only over a longer time frame. Eventually the edge will get beat up enough that you will want to hone it on something stronger like a pasted paddle or stone.