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What do you paste?

Do you prefer paste on linen, leather, a paddle, a combo? I have red and green paste on a piece of balsa from Larry's poor man's strop deal. I also have two of his beginners strops (suede on one side, smooth leather on the other - 2.25in), and a Prima Rindleder made in Germany thing my Dad gave me (1.75in) with linen on one side. Both unpasted. I use both the Rindleder and the Prima evey time I shave. The 2nd PMS is a backup, just sitting in the closet for now, because I am sipposed to be nicking up my strops, although it hasn't yet happened, miraculously.

So far about 20 laps on the German line, 10 or 20 on the suede, another 20-30 on each smooth leather (~50 total on the leather) and I get a great shave (except it is a noob shave with noob technique).

I have used the green and red paste once, when I thought the stropping didn't cut it, and it helped. I am thinking a little diamond paste at 2 or 3 mic might be a good addition, but not sur where to put it. On the linen, suede, leather? Should I dedicate a strop for paste, maybe the backup PMS, paste on both suede and leather sides?

Or just stick with the current setup, which seems to work ok.
 

Legion

Staff member
For touch-ups CrOx on Balsa. If I'm really getting serious I paste vegetable tanned kangaroo leather.

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I don't paste hanging strops, as a rule.
 
I enjoy Dovo pastes right now – it comes in green, red, and black. Black being the finest; green the coarsest. I think that the flatter a surface is when using pastes - the more effective it is in theory.

I use the green on a balsa block very similar to legions, but have found I enjoy the red and black on my linen strops the best. YMMV – it’s a touchy feely thing (I think I prefer red and black on the linen strop as I can strop quickly and hence – "polish?"). There are just about as many “ways” to go about it as there are shaver’s lol.

They also have a white, which is made to be placed on linen so that it doesn’t pill – I use that as well. I use my green as needed, but the others just about every shave.
 
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ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
It may be my imagination, but I think that balsa serves to maximize the aggressiveness of pastes, whereas leather minimizes the effect. I usually proceed as follows-

Dovo red paste, ~3 micron, on balsa
Dovo black past, ~0.5 micron (or CrOx equivalent), on balsa
0.25 micron diamond spray, on balsa
CrOx, ~0.5 micron, on latigo paddle

Works for me, and produces a nice combo of sharpness and smoothness.


Of course, someone had to send me some films to play around with, so the above is subject to change. Eventually, someone will suggest pasting films........
 
Of course, someone had to send me some films to play around with, so the above is subject to change. Eventually, someone will suggest pasting films........
I almost spit up my coffee lol!!
 
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Way behind the times.

The idea of synth slurry has been in the books for quite some time. I believe it was Robert Williams who may have pioneered it, by utilizing diamond sprays on a hard hone such as a Spyderco Ultrafine.

I've played around with 0.5um diamond spray on similarly sized lapping film, but never noticed any benefit.
 
I paste balsa and a strip of leather. I did try paste on felt... I can't recommend it, since the felt just seemed to get brittle and wasn't as nice to work with as balsa and leather.
 
Balsa for me too. Paco suggested a seatbelt which I really wanna try as a hanging option. Just been too busy (lazy) to make it happen.
 
I started stropping on my arm... So i paste the right one and leave the left bare....

Other than the green stain it works...

*(actually i pastes seat belts and they work just fine... I don't arm strop... That was purely for comedic value... No arms were stropped in the making of this post... Any similarity to persons alive or dead are purely coincidental.... YMMV)
 
Haha, was starting to think about trying the arm thing for a second.

Sounds like it is completely a matter of personal preference, no rules. I like it!
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
I started to mix left over slurry into my shave cream, so I sharpen my blade with each stroke.
 
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