Strop Paste Question

[Baldy]

Are any of you guys familiar with this paste?
I bought some back when i was an eager newbie and put some of the red (more agressive of the two pastes) on an old eBay strop.
Soon after that my wife got me a brand new strop and i also had my razors professionally honed, so I've just been using the new strop with no paste on those razors.
I'm now honing my razors myself and would like to look back into trying some pastes but I'm not sure if this is a good or bad product as i dont think I've seen anyone mention it on the forums.
Any advice?
Grant

 

[Chimensch]

It depends on what hones you are using. If you have a finishing hone (coticule, Chinese, Naniwa 10K, Shapton 16K, etc.) I don't think that the pastes are going to do anything that your finishing hone can't do.

 

[mparker762]

That looks like the same stuff as the Dovo red/black paste, even the packaging looks identical. It's good stuff though not heavily discussed as the modern industrial abrasives like diamond, chrome oxide, aluminum oxide, cerium oxide etc. The red is fairly coarse paste of jewelers rouge (aka iron oxide) that can be used for refreshing an edge that is pretty dull. Follow this up with the black paste which is a fairly fine paste made from graphite that puts the final polished edge on the razor, and is also used for a razor that only needs a little bit of touch-up.

Don't put too much on the strop, just enough to put a bit of color on it. If you use too much (of any paste not just these) it can actually dull the blade.

 

[r0ckrat]

I've just picked up an antique two-sided pasted strop with a red and black side, and would like to know where I can get some of this paste in the US.

Also, it appears that there is a pretty thick layer of old dried paste on each side of the paddle, should I clean this off, and how?

 

[mparker762]

I've just picked up an antique two-sided pasted strop with a red and black side, and would like to know where I can get some of this paste in the US.

Classic Shaving has it.

Also, it appears that there is a pretty thick layer of old dried paste on each side of the paddle, should I clean this off, and how?

Scrape it off with a dull knife (like a butter knife), then scrub with an old washcloth or soft toothbrush, damp, with a dab of soap. Work in a little bit of leather conditioner into the leather side(s) and let it dry overnight, then apply a very small amount of the paste and rub it in thoroughly. Make sure to wash your hands between the two pastes so you don't get cross contamination, even a little bit of red paste on the black side will make it act like it's covered in red paste because it's so much coarser.