Hello to all,
I finally got my pro pack 2 and regardless to say, I love it! I had some ample time to view videos and read up on material (being as I ordered mine during the holidays) so I was extremely pleased with my results right off the bat. I finally decided to bust out the strops last night and because I was being so hasty, put the .5 micron paste on the 1 micron strop. I immediately ran it under water and did my best to wipe the paste off without spreading it all over the strop. Any suggestions on how to better clean my strop before I apply the correct paste? I do not want cross contamination! Btw, thank you for all this vast wealth of sharpening information! I read a lot on here about some of you guys satisfying your sharpening OCD...finally people I can relate to!

Hey Rocco,

Welcome to the forum and congrats with your WEPS!

I don’t know how many paste there is still left on your strop, but you can scrape off excess paste with a knife (just don’t cut into the strop). I’ve never tried to further clean my strops, but water, rubbing alcohol or an eraser might be your best options. (The eraser in the same way it can sometimes be used to remove glue.)

But… I don’t think you have to be overly wary about cross-contamination. You accidentally put 0.5 micron paste on the 1 micron strop. If you clean this strop reasonably well and then apply the 1 micron paste, there might still be some 0.5 micron particles left behind. But these won’t hinder the 1 micron particles. The 1 micron paste should work normally.

It would be different if it were the other way around: 1 micron particles would definitely contaminate the 0.5 micron paste.

I have not cleaned my stops. Smoke eater on you tube talks about cleaning his. He uses rubbing alcohol and a brush or green kitchen pad.

The other option is just run with it and cover up the numbers on the paddles.

Great guys, thanks so much for the advice! I double checked and ofcourse I had it backwards (batting a 1000 I know) the 1 micron paste was accidentally on the .5 strop, the worst of the 2 scenarios. I will try out your remedies. Thanks again!

Since you have it worst case backwards, I'd suggest peeling the leather off on both and regluing them (harder) or relabeling the paddles (easier). It's hard to uncontaminate a strop perfectly.

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Ken