Does balsa replace linen?

This is about the post shave strop.

Does doing a post shave strop on pasted balsa remove the need for a post shave strop on linen?

Before I got my pasted balsa, I did a post shave strop on leather. I use the Poor Man's Strop from Whipped Dog. And I understood that this is really to just clean and dry the blade after a shave.

Now, however, I do a post shave strop on pasted balsa. I do this after every shave, in the hope of maintaining the sharpness of the edge, and it does seem to be accomplishing that.

I am now considering upgrading to a very nice leather strop. Most of them come with a linen strop attached.

But do I still need linen at all? Perhaps my daily balsa is doing a clean as well as keeping the edge.

Thoughts?

The short answer to your question is that if your maintenance regimen is working for you, then no, you do not need the linen.

The long answer, if there is one, is the theory that long term stropping on pasted strops, balsa or otherwise, may lead to a rounded bevel, which will then need to be honed out. The nuts and bolt behind that theory is that the softer substrate, compared to a hone, has some give to it, and abrasive on the pasted strop abrades the edge into a rounded shape. What one is supposed to do is strop on a non abrasive strop like leather and linen until the edge loses its keen edge, then strop on the paste to bring the edge back, and then revert to a non pasted one. In theory this will maintain the edge longer than you would vs. stropping every day on the pasted strop.

In practice people have found no difference AFAIK. Most of us sharpen our own and redo the edge way before it gets dull. Or conversely we booger the edge some other way and rehone.

So basically as long as you are happy with the edge, keep pasted stropping and carry on

I dont bother with linen or any cloth component. I have my pasted balsa regimen down to where I never have to re-hone, ever. Ever. http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/473580-How-To-Use-a-Pasted-Balsa-Strop for my method. I will warn you that cutting corners or making substitutions will likely not give you the expected results.

In the past, pasted balsa has been villified along with leather pasted paddle strops as a stop gap method that rounded edges and eventually sent the blade back to the hone in worse condition than just stropping on plain leather. This usually involved un-lapped balsa with a coating of CrOx or some other too-coarse abrasive, too much pressure and not enough laps. The method, when refined, works quite well.

I will go one further than just eliminating the linen. I have even shaved right off the final unpasted balsa successfully. It doesn't beat hanging leather, but it doesn't disappoint, either. I still use my leather strop because it is convenient, it is a habit, it is paid for, and it never lets me down. If I suddenly ruined all my leather strops, I would be okay with just my balsa regimen including the unpasted thin strip for final stropping.

The only downside I can see is it adds a couple of minutes to total shave time. I am okay with that. Some others might not be.

Slash has gotten his pasted balsa down to perfect so I would say you could do a lot worse than copying his methods precisely.

Doesn't the taped spine ruin the balsa wood?

ouch said:

Doesn't the taped spine ruin the balsa wood?

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I doubt it. Probably just the razor.

I don't use the linen on my hanging strop for anything. Rumor has it that they have no effect. I also (for the most part) go from my pasted hanging denim regimen straight to clean leather (hanging).

wetshaveyyc said:

I don't use the linen on my hanging strop for anything. Rumor has it that they have no effect. I also (for the most part) go from my pasted hanging denim regimen straight to clean leather (hanging).

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Is it linen or is it some other material that has been called linen? Real linen most certainly has an effect.

Slash McCoy said:

I doubt it. Probably just the razor.

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I can't top that response.

Brianskeet said:

Is it linen or is it some other material that has been called linen? Real linen most certainly has an effect.

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I should have re-phrased. Hanging linen, like flax for example, has a degrading effect on a triangular edge geometry, and has little to no effect on micro-convex apex geometry.

To better answer the OP, if you are successfully creating a micro-convex apex off the pasted balsa strop, then there's no need for the burnishing effect of hanging linen.

This has been my experience.