Whats up

[C.Morgan]

Ive got 2 leather strops both dovo and one one ive put the red paste and the other is just the yellow paste like the lubricant.My razor is extremely sharp and passes the hanging hair test but when i shave its really inconsistent.Can any one give any advice to what i might be doing wrong i.e shit strops,shit paste,shit razor......it says on it its a "SWORD AND CROWN FULLY HOLLOW GROUND" i bought it shave ready off ebay and it is in pefrect condition.....nice and shiny lol.

[TstebinsB]

Eh. Nothin' much. How you doin'?

[Kees]

How is your skin prep?

[mparker762]

red paste is pretty coarse, you're unlikely to get a very good shaving edge with it. The yellow paste isn't an abrasive at all, it's just leather conditioner. If you're trying to shave off the red paste then that would explain the results you're getting. The HHT actually correlates pretty poorly with shave-readiness - many razors can pass the HHT with ease at 1k up to about 8k, but actually start having trouble with it as they get sharper and smoother. What you need to do is use a finer polish on the edge to bring it up to shave quality.

When you say you've got two strops, you mean two separate strops and not just the two sides to one strop? so the red paste is on the leather side of one strop and the yellow paste is on the leather side of the other strop? If so, then what you need is the dovo white paste, which is their final polish. Smear it on the cloth side of the red-pasted strop, and it will put a nice smooth edge on the razor. Or if you've got dovo black paste then smear that on the other side of the red-pasted strop - its quite a bit faster than the white paste and also leaves a nice edge, but it's too aggressive to use on a daily basis.

Afterwards, use the strop with the yellow-pasted leather and the unpasted fabric for your daily stropping. You can put a little bit of the dovo white paste on the fabric side of this strop if you wish (they come that way from the factory) but don't overdo it, since a little polish goes a long way when you're using it everyday.