I just acquired a set of honing stones and am working on a razor. But, I don't understand something about stropping with compound. I am using some diamond stones, the finest of which goes down to 3 Microns. I can get stropping pastes in 3, 2, 1 or even 0.5 Microns. BTW - I decided to go with diamond based pastes or spray. Now the questions: 1) Is there any benefit to stropping with the same size as your hone goes to? In other words, will a 3 Micron paste give me anything I don't already have? 2) If there is a benefit, is it really small, or is it significant? In other words, what are the ramifications of skipping 3 micron and going right to a 2 or 1 Micron paste? 3) Is there any real benefit in going all the way down to 0.5 Microns? 4) Given my choices of compound size, what would you, personally, use? Personal opinions without hard, cold facts to back them up are most welcome.
I think 3 micro is roughly equivalent to an 8k grit stone. I finish my blades on 1 micron lapping film. I then finish and touch up on .5 micron diamond paste. I do not routinely use the pasted strop. 99% of the time it's on the linen/ leather. I'll be watching this thread, I may have it all wrong
Thanks for the info. I am planning on using the paste after honing and occasionally as a "touch-up". Normal daily would be only leather. So, would you completely skip the 3 Micron Paste?
I would, but that's me. If you start with a shave ready straight, you shouldn't need the stones or paste for a few months. There'll be more knowledgeable gents than me chiming in shortly
I just use the green Chromium Oxide paste. It looks like a hard green piece of chalk. Works great for me.
This is all new to me. I just bought my first strop, a Drygulch #48. I just want to see what you guys are saying.
Pastes are a Great Tool for Me..I Use them Coming Off the Hone & to Maintain My SRs around Every 4 Shaves to Keep them Sharp for Maybe a Year or 18 Months in a Rotation before they Ever need Taken to a Refresh Hone..I Have Yet to See an Edge that Cant be Improved or Refined Coming Off the Hone with Paste.. Billy..
I bought a cheap Chinese leather/linen strop, from Hong Kong. It cost .97¢ and I just use the linen part, to put the stropping paste on. I didn't want to gunk up my good linen strop, with the paste.
Now, that is a cheap strop. I've been thinking of making a blue jean strop as was posted a week or so ago. That would probably work great with a paste.
If you have an 8k stone/hone you are finishing on now then I would do as spyder suggested and go to a 1 micron or even jump to the .5 and you should be fine. I say 1 micron only because I don't know your level of skill. If you have edges that are good now a 1 micron may not be needed. OTOH pastes are so cheap, why not get both and experiment? There are 4 sided paddle strops out there that are very good at taking pastes. You can paste 1/.5/.25 micron sides and then leave the fourth plain leather. Many ways to Rome.
My vast amount of experience consists of re-establishing the edge from unusable to a decent shaver on a grand total of 1 razor. I have done this slowly and carefully without any real issues. The bevel is equal size and consistency along the whole length of the blade (no "smiling"). I tried the razor this morning with just stropping on leather without any compound or "web" type belt. It is a smooth and sharp blade. I have a few things on order that will show tomorrow or the next day that will improve the situation further. One issue here is that I can't really experiment with different materials without wasting a strop by adding a compound I may never use after one try. I forgot to mention in my first post that I do have a granite (I think) block and some nice 3 and 1 micron films. So, what I decided to do was this: My stones go to 8K (3 microns) My films go down to 1 micron I will be using a 0.25 micron diamond spray on a hard felt strop Lastly, a leather strop I am going to keep the web belt on my new strop without any compound just in case I need an intermediary size compound. Of course, the truth of the matter is that I am probably over thinking all of this. I think this will work nicely. I will let folks know in the next day or two how it works out.
Mark: you basically have the same set up as I do. I hone to 8k stone, then 1 micron film, .5 micron pasted strop, linen and finally leather.
I use paste after the finishing stones and also to refresh my razors after 2 or 3 shaves. I usually finish on a Shapton Glass 16k then CrOx pasted strop (about 0.5 micron) sometimes I follow this with FeO2 (0.25 micron). Honestly I really can't feel a difference between the two so I don't use the FeO2 as much. For touch ups I use either the CrOx/FeO2 or Dovo red/black paste. I am starting to the like the Dovo pastes, the red is about 3 micron and the black is similar to CrOx. I think the Dovo red helps for touch ups but it could be in my head.
Chromium oxide and iron oxide are good refreshers. Chromium Oxide is usually around 0.5 microns, diamond paste around 0.25 and CBN(cubic boron nitride) around 0.125 micron. Chromium oxide seems to be all I need. I don't think there are hones that can get as fine a grit size as the pastes. My Suehiro Guyomko 20k hone is not as fine a grit as chromium oxide, but it gives a most wonderful edge.
I would like to mention that I have heard that not all of the green compounds that are sold as Chromium Oxide contain only Chromium Oxide. Many, particularly some of the stuff that you find on Amazon, for example, contain a significant amount of other substances with significantly larger grit sizes. Make sure you get your CrOx from a reliable source.
I have them all hehehe I mean all the cool toys even including .10~ CBN After messing with them all over the last 10 years here are the cold hard facts as I see them ie: My opinion #1 I don't do refreshes with pastes, I have stupidly expensive Stones and Hones that need attention #2 I only use pastes to give a certain effect right after honing #3 I use 99.99% Pure Super White Cerium Oxide .25~ on Leather after a Shapton 30k or my Nakayama #4 I use 99.99% Pure Chromium Oxide .30~ on Leather after all other hones That is all
