To paste or not to paste...that is the question.

[Rusty Blade]

I know a lot of you use a pasted strop to keep your edges fresh. Personally, I don't use strop paste. I use a plain linen and leather strop. I hone my own razors and I refresh my edges with a 12k Naniwa stone once in a blue moon. I have a large rotation of SRs so once I put an edge on a razor it is good for a very long time. I can see the benefit of a pasted strop if you don't hone your own razors and want to extend the life of an edge. I stand to be corrected on this matter....I am genuinely curious.

I am starting this poll to get a sense of how prevalent is the use of pasted strops. For those who use (or don't use) paste, I would be interested to know your rationale.

 

[2bit_collie]

I’m assuming that for the purposes of this poll paste use includes both pasted linen/leather as well as pasted balsa. Right?

 

[Rusty Blade]

I’m assuming that for the purposes of this poll paste use includes both pasted linen/leather as well as pasted balsa. Right?

yes...any surface works -- linen, leather, balsa.

 

[Herrenberg]

Pasted balsa (or, latest experiment: basswood) makes the super-keen edge that I'm addicted to. I can't imagine being without it.

I once tried just stropping between shaves (linen/rough side of leather/cordovan). The shaves got progressively less acceptable, and I gave up halfway through the seventh one, having hit my limit of suffering for science.

 

[Eastcoast30]

I do not put CrOx or other pastes on my strops. Once on, it is there forever. I have good luck with unpasted flax linen and leather. But I do have a few razors finished with pasted balsa - "The Method". They are quite sharp and I am in the process of comparing shaves with jnat and balsa finishes.

 

[Green manalishi]

I use a balsa strop with diamond compound.
I hone my razors with both lapping film and sometimes I use a ILR stone.If I use the lapping film I will use the pasted balsa..
Then when I’ve used the progression of pasted balsa I will use the 200,000 grit diamond on balsa just to refresh.

However if I finish with the ILR stone I just use the stone to refresh when needed.
Most of the time I use “the method”It’s what I started with and I’m used to.Sometime I will use the ILR on certain razors…I like both…

 

[Legion]

I have a pasted strop that I will occasionally quickly use, if I can’t be bothered doing a proper touch up with a stone. But usually I’ll use a stone.

 

[rbscebu]

As pasted includes diamond pasted balsa, I have to vote "yes".

Being that as it may and not withstanding the foregoing, I do not use any paste on any other stropping medium. I set and refine my bevels on whetstones and lapping films. Then it is onto diamond pasted balsa strops. Edges are maintained on diamond pasted balsa strops only. They never need honing again.

My diamond pasted balsa strops setup cost me less than USD 100. Consumables (balsa, glue and diamond paste) cost me under USD 10 per year.

 

[Ravenonrock]

I have an old Dovo practice strop beaten up with nicks. I dedicated the linen with CroOx compound. I mostly just use plain hanging leather but will touch up on the pasted linen from time to time.

 

[Tomo]

I learned honing with ‘The Method’. I mainly use naturals now but still keep a progression of diamond balsa strops. I find them quite effective for little touch ups or bumping an edge with my hybrid method.

 

[Boz]

I have razors finished on Arks, Jnats and Diamond spray. I like all of them but prefer the finish from the Arks.

 

[Scruffy Pete]

I leave my leather strops paste free but use the balsawood/diamond paste progression on a regular basis. My sharpening stones I now use only when I first purchase a blade and set up its initial edge. The balsawood strops actually further hone my razor's edge to a finer finish over time. My daily stropping varies between my hanging strop and one, two, three, or none of my balsawood strops depending on how satisfied I am with its performance.
The natural stone rabbit hole I haven't climbed into simply because the balsawood/diamond paste stropping has been so ridiculously effective.

 

[Gamma]

I've always preferred a natural stone finish to "pasted" edges or even those finished on synthetic stones.
I do experiment with pastes but I don't rely on them and it's an intermittent thing at best. I use them once in a while on cutlery, sometimes to relieve burrs other times to polish a 1k edge a bit further.
Once in a while I will finish a razor on synths but not too often.
Making it theoretically sharper doesn't make it cut better or 'flusher'. Feel is a huge component too and natural stone finishes are always more skin-friendly for me.
My current honing progressions get me where I want to be, my shaves are better than with anything else I've shaved with.
But - when I first started honing I used Crox after Coticules because my honing technique left the edge short of the mark.

 

[GreazyThumbs]

I find pastes are a crutch and abandoned them early on. While the will make a razor very sharp I find them excessively harsh and without soul. Once my razor starts to tug back to the natural stones it goes.

Sent from my KB2007 using Tapatalk

 

[scoots]

As pasted includes diamond pasted balsa, I have to vote "yes".

Being that as it may and not withstanding the foregoing, I do not use any paste on any other stropping medium. I set and refine my bevels on whetstones and lapping films. Then it is onto diamond pasted balsa strops. Edges are maintained on diamond pasted balsa strops only. They never need honing again.

My diamond pasted balsa strops setup cost me less than USD 100. Consumables (balsa, glue and diamond paste) cost me under USD 10 per year.

I’ve seen a couple posts from you and @Slash McCoy about pasted Baltic strops negating the need for honing again. Can you point me to one of the threads that explains, or just explain again, what your method is? I’d like to give it a shot.

 

[dabrock]

I use a chromium oxide crayon on a linen strop to help take down harsh edges a bit. I don't think the traditional pastes such as jeweler's rouge actually sharpen since they actually rather course with green being about 800 and red about 1500 tops. AFAIK they are just for polishing and smoothing small imperfections to remove harshness.

 

[thombrogan]

Don’t know if it’s basswood or balsa, but I use one of those and am making a second. The diamond spray on leather is for knives and rarely used.

 

[scoots]

As pasted includes diamond pasted balsa, I have to vote "yes".

Being that as it may and not withstanding the foregoing, I do not use any paste on any other stropping medium. I set and refine my bevels on whetstones and lapping films. Then it is onto diamond pasted balsa strops. Edges are maintained on diamond pasted balsa strops only. They never need honing again.

My diamond pasted balsa strops setup cost me less than USD 100. Consumables (balsa, glue and diamond paste) cost me under USD 10 per year.

Never mind. I found it!

 

[camoloc]

with all the types of stones available these days I see no use for pasting a hanging traditional Strop.

used to use balsa strops.

like natural stones these days.......preference which varies greatly by our members here.

camo

 

[luv2shave]

I know a lot of you use a pasted strop to keep your edges fresh. Personally, I don't use strop paste. I use a plain linen and leather strop. I hone my own razors and I refresh my edges with a 12k Naniwa stone once in a blue moon. I have a large rotation of SRs so once I put an edge on a razor it is good for a very long time. I can see the benefit of a pasted strop if you don't hone your own razors and want to extend the life of an edge. I stand to be corrected on this matter....I am genuinely curious.

I am starting this poll to get a sense of how prevalent is the use of pasted strops. For those who use (or don't use) paste, I would be interested to know your rationale.

This vibes with me. Subscribed!