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Stropping on wood other than Balsa?

Ok guys, I'm not nearly as skilled in the knowledge and art of woodworking as a lot of you are - so help me out!

Sometime last year I bought a Japanese Natural stone, and it came in this lovely pine-looking box. The wood is very light, and has a very nice soft feel to it. Long story short, it was sitting in my closet until just the other day, when I took it out and got the idea in my head that it looked just like an unpasted balsa hone. The size is 8" x 3".

So, what do you think? Could I coat this baby with some ChromOx and use it as my touch-up strop? I don't care about messing it up, actually I took it out of the closet to toss it, so that's not a concern. What I'm worried about is my razors. Balsa seems to be a big hit, but what about other soft woods? Safe to use?
 
I'm a newbie here but I think the grain of the wood being so rough might hurt your razors. May I suggest that you sand it down a bit before applying any CrOx? I would imagine that this would remove any varnishes are sealants that are on surface of the wood making it easier to retain the CrOx.
 
Thanks, already tried it out and didn't love it, so I tossed it and just went out and bought some balsa!
 
May I suggest that you sand it down a bit before applying any CrOx?

Sanding it down doesn't help the way you might thing, because the softer wood abrades quicker so you always wind up with a slightly ribbed surface. This doesn't really hurt the edge by itself but it does mean that the tops of the ribs are what's doing the honing so you need to do an X pattern or make sure the grain is angling across the surface.

My favorite hardwood for pasting is Poplar, although I suspect lemonwood would be ideal if it ever becomes available here again (lemonwood is a hardwood that like balsa has no real ring structure, but it comes from Cuba).
 
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