DIY Balsa Strops

[Holiday]

With regard to a suitable tile in your substrate, that tile needn't be perfectly flat or smooth. It just needs to be extremely stiff and not change shape due to humidity and/or temperature. No timber, however well seasoned, will meet this requirement. It is even a problem with the balsa and one of the reasons that extra-thick balsa is not specified.

Lapping flat and repasting before each use may work, however you will end up going through a lot of diamond paste. Remember that to keep a consistently perfect edge, you will be balsa stropping an edge after each and every shave. Do you intend to lap and repaste with each shave?

Thanks for the additional advice @rbscebu, I have since ordered aluminum plates to use as substrate.

With regard to needing to use 0.1um paste, I am expressing my personal observations and those of others who have experienced the same or similar results. I cannot explain why this is so, only what I and others have learned from experience.

Shave comfort is not just about "sharpness". Once you start getting into sub-micron "honing" you are dealing closer to a molecular level rather than a granular level. Steel grain sizes are of the order of about 4um.

I realised my mistake and have ordered 0.1 um paste

 

[Pbgoose]

 

[Sammy]

Sounds like alot of work
@Holiday just grab a jnat and be done with it lol

 

[rbscebu]

Sounds like alot of work
@Holiday just grab a jnat and be done with it lol

Jnats are good but not cheap and do not produce as sharp an edge as the balsa progression 0.5um, 0.25um and 0.1um. If you want the sharpest and comfortable edge (some don't), you use diamond pasted balsa strops. Cost should be well under $100. Once properly set up and used, your SR never needs to touch a whetstone again.

My honing progression now consists of:

1. Start bevel setting on 400 (if needed) and 1k stones.
2. Finish bevel set on 3k stone.
3. Polish bevel on 6k and 10k stone.
4. Polish bevel on 3um and 1um lapping film.
5. Finish off on 0.5um, 0.25um and 0.1um diamond pasted balsa strops.

After each shave, a blade gets about 50 laps on a 0.1um hanging balsa strop to keep that perfect edge. Never touches a stone or film again.

 

[rbscebu]

I actually have four diamond pasted balsa strops; 1 x 0.5um, 1 x 0.2um and 2 x 0.1um. As you may observe, the 0.1um gets the most used so I have two of those. One is used for normal progressions and the other is used for after-shave edge maintenance only.

 

[Sammy]

You are not finishing correctly on a Japanese natural stone if it is not sharp enough for you
But as always ymmv
They do require the appropriate middle ground work before finishing
But, again different strokes for different folks

 

[Holiday]

Lapped the balsa strops yesterday. Figured if they were going to warp it would be during a change in season and we have just entered the dry here in the Top End. The most beautiful summer days imaginable
The kiln dried Merbau held up extremely well and the balsa was flat with minor wear and tear from stropping razors but no warping.
The last strop made 0.1 diamond paste strop was loaded onto a piece of western red cedar which had curled slightly at each end (bowed).
May have been a settling in period - will see how it goes next lapping.

 

[Substance]

Jnats are good but not cheap and do not produce as sharp an edge as the balsa progression 0.5um, 0.25um and 0.1um. If you want the sharpest and comfortable edge (some don't), you use diamond pasted balsa strops. Cost should be well under $100. Once properly set up and used, your SR never needs to touch a whetstone again.

My honing progression now consists of:

1. Start bevel setting on 400 (if needed) and 1k stones.
2. Finish bevel set on 3k stone.
3. Polish bevel on 6k and 10k stone.
4. Polish bevel on 3um and 1um lapping film.
5. Finish off on 0.5um, 0.25um and 0.1um diamond pasted balsa strops.

After each shave, a blade gets about 50 laps on a 0.1um hanging balsa strop to keep that perfect edge. Never touches a stone or film again.

question - What is a hanging balsa strop?
and do you strop on clean leather after the 0.1um balsa or any diamond paste actually?

 

[rbscebu]

question - What is a hanging balsa strop?
and do you strop on clean leather after the 0.1um balsa or any diamond paste actually?

Hanging balsa is were you hold your 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa strop with the thumb and one or two fingers of your non-dominant hand at end end of the balsa strop so that the balsa strop hangs down freely. You then strop vertically up and down on the strop. The purpose of this is to reduce the stropping pressure to less than the weight of the blade. The blade's edge only just touches the pasted balsa.

After finishing with the 0.1μm diamond pasted balsa stropping, I wipe the blade clean to remove any traces of 0.1μm diamond from the blade. I don't want any diamond particles to get onto my leather/cloth strop. I then only strop on clean leather before each shave. With a strop of about 450m stropping length, I do about 50 to 60 laps before each shave.

I never apply paste to either a leather or cloth strop. Once applied, it is effectively there forever. Stropping on a pasted leather/cloth strop puts a slight convexity on the bevel. This later prevents the blade's edge from making contact with a diamond pasted balsa strop when you may need to go back to your diamond pasted balsa strops.

I only use a clean cloth strop to clean the blade's bevel of soap residue after a shave. About 6 very light laps does the job.

If you have already previously applied paste to your cloth strop, let me know and I'll tell you what you can do to overcome the effect of the paste.

 

[Substance]

I have made balsa strops & posted here somewhere using 0.3um Chromium oxide & 0.1um Ferris Oxide
however very rarely use them after any stone nowadays
I have read many reports ( not my direct experience with diamond pastes ) of the diamond pastes being potentially harsher than the Chromium & Ferris oxides due to the sharper grain type, could this be contributing to your discomfort feel from the 0.5 & 0.25 um items?

My most used honing progressions consist of the following options depending on the blade, steel type & my mood:

Bevel setting / repairs

1. Major chip repairs or edge correction 400 Atoma or 400 Naniwa lobster stone (grey brick)
2. Minor chip repairs or edge correction and 400 cleam up - 1200 Atoma or 800 Naniwa lobster stone (Red brick)
3. Bevel set Chocera 1k (Green brick)

Option 1: Jnat progression post bevel set for serveral years now

1. Low bevel polish on Uchigumori self slurry to clean water
2. High bevel polish either a Shubodai asagi or a Nakayama Asagi base stone with Asano nagura slurry - Betsujyou Botan then Tokkyu Tenjyou sometimes
3. Finisher either a Shubodai asagi or a Nakayama Asagi base stone with Asano nagura slurry - Tokkyu Mejiro to clean water ( Nakayama is the better finish)
4. Clean Flax linen strop
5. Clean Roo leather strop

Option 2: Synthetic progression post bevel set

1. Low bevel polish on Naniwa Gouken Hayabusa 4k
2. High bevel polish Naniwa Gouken Fuji 8k.
3. Finisher Naniwa Super Stone 12k
4. Clean Flax linen then
5. Clean Roo leather

Minor touch ups are usually on the 12k or Nakayama, but if I don't want to use a stone

1. 10 laps on balsa strop with 0.3um chromium oxide
2. 10 laps on balsa strop with 0.1um ferris oxide
3. Clean Flax linen strop
4. Clean Roo leather strop

 

[rbscebu]

I have made balsa strops & posted here somewhere using 0.3um Chromium oxide & 0.1um Ferris Oxide
however very rarely use them after any stone nowadays
I have read many reports ( not my direct experience with diamond pastes ) of the diamond pastes being potentially harsher than the Chromium & Ferris oxides due to the sharper grain type, could this be contributing to your discomfort feel from the 0.5 & 0.25 um items?
....

It could be. Finishing and maintaining an edge on diamond pasted balsa strops is not suitable for everyone. Fortunately it is not too expensive to find out if it is for you. It is probably a person's individual perception but only they can determine what level of sharpness -v- comfort is right for them.

I also found that, even using 0.1um diamond pasted balsa strops, my edges were sharper but not quite as comfortable as those off a natural whetstone. Once I started including short X strokes into my diamond pasted balsa stropping routine, that all changed for the better.