Bart
Well-Known Member
A few months ago I got this short e-mail from Ray: «Hi Bart, I'm sending you one of my balsa strops. Could you please check it out?»
About a week later a padded envelope arrived, with the balsa strop carefully packed, a generous spare supply of CrO and a letter with recommendations for use and maintenance of the tool. It all breathes quality and suggests that Ray has thought this concept carefully through.
[h2]The Strop[/h2]
The construction is as simple as precise. A piece of balsa is glued to a maple base. The thickness of the maple is well-chosen: it allows for he strop to be held in the hand securely. The weight is enough to add a pleasant stability. Dimensions of the balsa surface is about 75mm X 195mm. That's wide enough to support the full length of a razor blade, but I strongly recommend doing an X-style stropping stroke anyway. Balsa has some latitude in its surface, but not as much as a leather or a fabric strop. That has advantages, but on the disadvantages side, it doesn't fold to the edge as much. An X-style stropping stroke assures that all of the edge has seen good contact with the strop at some point during the stroke, because it constantly shifts the contact points between the razor and the strop. I personally would have preferred a slightly smaller surface, let 's say: 50x200. That's just to nag about something. I'm sure it wouldn't affect the actual performance of the strop.
[h2]The Substrate[/h2]
Balsa is the trade name for lumber of a tree with botanical name "Ochroma Lagopus (or Pyramidale)". The wood has a coarse open grain and very low density. It's extrememly soft and has some cushion effect. That makes this wood species extremely suitable to be used as a "pasted" stropping substrate, loaded with an abrasive powder or compound. It accepts CrO very well and embeds it into its pores, leaving enough of it exposed to anything that passes over it, but not so much that it wears off. It's one of the fastest substrates for fine abrasives I've come accross.
[h2]The Abrasive[/h2]
Ray obtains his Chromium Oxide in powder form at HandAmerican. HandAmerican has a standing reputation for selling top grade CrO, used worldwide by razor owners and knife enthusiasts. It is praised for being consistent in particle size and pureness. It's rated 0.5 micron. CrO is a cherished abrasive among sharpening experts, for its good ratio between actual abrasion - which shapes the edge to a keener state by removing steel - and polishing actions - that keep the edge smooth and straight, by plastic reduction of scratches and teeth -.
[h2]Feedback[/h2]
Stropping on Balsa delivers little feedback. There's almost no perceptible draw or friction, at the low pressure this tool MUST be used. That make the strop appear as if nothing is happening, and invites to do more laps than necessary. Be warned.
[h2]Performance[/h2]
This strop acts fast. Much faster than any of the other uses of CrO I have tried so far. Within *very* few laps it forces its own properties onto an edge. Allow me to vent an opinion. CrO is the second best shaving edge finisher in the world. Ray's balsa strop makes that very apparent. I prefer a Coticule finish, otherwise I would have registered "CrO.net"
, but shaving with a CrO finished edge is certainly a sweet option.
Still, that's not the true brilliance of the StraightRazorSharp Balsa strop. Ray has mentioned on a few occasions how he includes a few sweeps on the balsa strop before finalizing an edge on a finishing hone. I' ve always thought "Yeah, yeah ,yeah" without giving it much true consideration. I thought it was some kind of confidence thing. Like my youngest one, who could ride perfectly with a bike that had guiding wheels floating a few inches above the road, but not with the same bike that had the guiding wheels removed. As I said: a confidence issue. I was wrong. Not about the guiding wheels, but about the Balsa strop before finishing. Most of us know that getting good keenness of a Dilucot procedure on a Coticule, requires ample honing skills to squeeze that last bit of performance out of a Coticule. That takes a while to learn, and in the mean time, you can have a lesser day, or a beefy razor with a wide bevel, or some other reason why the edge doesn't quite take the keenness you'd aspired. Sure, you can turn it into a Unicot after all, or file out some strop with an abrasive compound and finish the razor on that one. After that, there's no way to finish on the Coticule, because the now slightly convexed edge is out of reach of a flat honing surface. Not so with the Balsa strop. After augmenting keenness on it, which is much easier to do than on a Coticule, the edge is still flat enough to accept 30 laps on a Coticule with water. It's a full Dilucot, with a small deviation into progressive honing on the CrO Balsa strop. It works very well. Ray has send me a razor that shaves excellent, and I have copied his method on several other razors, with perfect outcome. I deliberately stopped too early during Dilucot, just to see how far the balsa strop can reach back to pick up neglected keenness. It won't discharge anyone from learning a decent honing stroke, but it can certainly catch the edge at a level of keenness that can be easily reached.
On top of all that, it's an excellent "touch-up" device. Without hardly any experience, an edge can be kept going for a very long time if you keep the balsa strop nearby. It's probably less demanding for action "at the very first signs of edge deterioration" than most Coticules are. And you can always add a few Coticule sweeps, if you prefer its edge finish. Or any other finisher for that matter.
[h2]To close, let's say something bad about it.[/h2]
I'm the kind of person that suffers from technical obduracy. I constantly break bolts, because I can't resist the lure of that one final turn. The one that exceeds the stresses the bolt is willing to take. I sand through veneer. I consistently apply too much glue. An extra nail is always better... You get the picture. The Balsa strop is like a devil for people like me. It's hard to stop on time. Before Ray sent me this Balsa strop, I never really understood the concept of overhoning. I am still convinced that in 90% of cases the "overhoning" holler is an incorrect explanation for a number of honing mishaps of completely different nature. But the Balsa strop indeed displays behavior that accords with "over"honing. It's as if the very edge disintegrates when you hit the limit of the abrasives and the way they are exposed to the steel of the razor. The fact that it dulls further after a good stropping on linen after that, seems to support that postulation: the linen cleans up the part that was falling apart, exposing a more rigid yet rounder structure underneath. My CrO loom strop - leather with only a translucent green haze of abrasives on it - does not show this behavior. Both use the same HandAmerical pure Chromium oxide in powder form. I estimate that 5 laps on the deep green balsa surface equals at least 30 laps on the loom strop.
In conclusion. The Straightrazorsharp CrO Balsa Strop is a quality tool. It's well built with noble materials. It's a versatile tool. It provides a great edge finish in its own right. Its surface is flat enough to boost keenness before finishing the edge on a hone. It can be used for the same "touchup" tasks as a good barber hone.
Bart.
About a week later a padded envelope arrived, with the balsa strop carefully packed, a generous spare supply of CrO and a letter with recommendations for use and maintenance of the tool. It all breathes quality and suggests that Ray has thought this concept carefully through.
[h2]The Strop[/h2]
The construction is as simple as precise. A piece of balsa is glued to a maple base. The thickness of the maple is well-chosen: it allows for he strop to be held in the hand securely. The weight is enough to add a pleasant stability. Dimensions of the balsa surface is about 75mm X 195mm. That's wide enough to support the full length of a razor blade, but I strongly recommend doing an X-style stropping stroke anyway. Balsa has some latitude in its surface, but not as much as a leather or a fabric strop. That has advantages, but on the disadvantages side, it doesn't fold to the edge as much. An X-style stropping stroke assures that all of the edge has seen good contact with the strop at some point during the stroke, because it constantly shifts the contact points between the razor and the strop. I personally would have preferred a slightly smaller surface, let 's say: 50x200. That's just to nag about something. I'm sure it wouldn't affect the actual performance of the strop.
[h2]The Substrate[/h2]
Balsa is the trade name for lumber of a tree with botanical name "Ochroma Lagopus (or Pyramidale)". The wood has a coarse open grain and very low density. It's extrememly soft and has some cushion effect. That makes this wood species extremely suitable to be used as a "pasted" stropping substrate, loaded with an abrasive powder or compound. It accepts CrO very well and embeds it into its pores, leaving enough of it exposed to anything that passes over it, but not so much that it wears off. It's one of the fastest substrates for fine abrasives I've come accross.
[h2]The Abrasive[/h2]
Ray obtains his Chromium Oxide in powder form at HandAmerican. HandAmerican has a standing reputation for selling top grade CrO, used worldwide by razor owners and knife enthusiasts. It is praised for being consistent in particle size and pureness. It's rated 0.5 micron. CrO is a cherished abrasive among sharpening experts, for its good ratio between actual abrasion - which shapes the edge to a keener state by removing steel - and polishing actions - that keep the edge smooth and straight, by plastic reduction of scratches and teeth -.
[h2]Feedback[/h2]
Stropping on Balsa delivers little feedback. There's almost no perceptible draw or friction, at the low pressure this tool MUST be used. That make the strop appear as if nothing is happening, and invites to do more laps than necessary. Be warned.
[h2]Performance[/h2]
This strop acts fast. Much faster than any of the other uses of CrO I have tried so far. Within *very* few laps it forces its own properties onto an edge. Allow me to vent an opinion. CrO is the second best shaving edge finisher in the world. Ray's balsa strop makes that very apparent. I prefer a Coticule finish, otherwise I would have registered "CrO.net"
, but shaving with a CrO finished edge is certainly a sweet option. Still, that's not the true brilliance of the StraightRazorSharp Balsa strop. Ray has mentioned on a few occasions how he includes a few sweeps on the balsa strop before finalizing an edge on a finishing hone. I' ve always thought "Yeah, yeah ,yeah" without giving it much true consideration. I thought it was some kind of confidence thing. Like my youngest one, who could ride perfectly with a bike that had guiding wheels floating a few inches above the road, but not with the same bike that had the guiding wheels removed. As I said: a confidence issue. I was wrong. Not about the guiding wheels, but about the Balsa strop before finishing. Most of us know that getting good keenness of a Dilucot procedure on a Coticule, requires ample honing skills to squeeze that last bit of performance out of a Coticule. That takes a while to learn, and in the mean time, you can have a lesser day, or a beefy razor with a wide bevel, or some other reason why the edge doesn't quite take the keenness you'd aspired. Sure, you can turn it into a Unicot after all, or file out some strop with an abrasive compound and finish the razor on that one. After that, there's no way to finish on the Coticule, because the now slightly convexed edge is out of reach of a flat honing surface. Not so with the Balsa strop. After augmenting keenness on it, which is much easier to do than on a Coticule, the edge is still flat enough to accept 30 laps on a Coticule with water. It's a full Dilucot, with a small deviation into progressive honing on the CrO Balsa strop. It works very well. Ray has send me a razor that shaves excellent, and I have copied his method on several other razors, with perfect outcome. I deliberately stopped too early during Dilucot, just to see how far the balsa strop can reach back to pick up neglected keenness. It won't discharge anyone from learning a decent honing stroke, but it can certainly catch the edge at a level of keenness that can be easily reached.
On top of all that, it's an excellent "touch-up" device. Without hardly any experience, an edge can be kept going for a very long time if you keep the balsa strop nearby. It's probably less demanding for action "at the very first signs of edge deterioration" than most Coticules are. And you can always add a few Coticule sweeps, if you prefer its edge finish. Or any other finisher for that matter.
[h2]To close, let's say something bad about it.[/h2]
I'm the kind of person that suffers from technical obduracy. I constantly break bolts, because I can't resist the lure of that one final turn. The one that exceeds the stresses the bolt is willing to take. I sand through veneer. I consistently apply too much glue. An extra nail is always better... You get the picture. The Balsa strop is like a devil for people like me. It's hard to stop on time. Before Ray sent me this Balsa strop, I never really understood the concept of overhoning. I am still convinced that in 90% of cases the "overhoning" holler is an incorrect explanation for a number of honing mishaps of completely different nature. But the Balsa strop indeed displays behavior that accords with "over"honing. It's as if the very edge disintegrates when you hit the limit of the abrasives and the way they are exposed to the steel of the razor. The fact that it dulls further after a good stropping on linen after that, seems to support that postulation: the linen cleans up the part that was falling apart, exposing a more rigid yet rounder structure underneath. My CrO loom strop - leather with only a translucent green haze of abrasives on it - does not show this behavior. Both use the same HandAmerical pure Chromium oxide in powder form. I estimate that 5 laps on the deep green balsa surface equals at least 30 laps on the loom strop.
In conclusion. The Straightrazorsharp CrO Balsa Strop is a quality tool. It's well built with noble materials. It's a versatile tool. It provides a great edge finish in its own right. Its surface is flat enough to boost keenness before finishing the edge on a hone. It can be used for the same "touchup" tasks as a good barber hone.
Bart.
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