Thread: Experiment with Cnat

I'm in the middle of an "experiment" with my Cnat so I thought I'd start a thread.

I don't suppose this experiment will prove anything due to the limited data I'll have but it's a learning experience for me.

My honing progression is generally 1k, 4k, 8k, Cnat and chromium oxide and ferric oxide on my paddle strop before going to plain leather.

I get decent shaves but one can always get better I assume.

I decided to try ending the cnat part of the progression on glycerin and water. I did that with 3 blades but with one after the glycerin and water cnat I did a few laps on ferric oxide (but not chromium oxide).

So, I had two blades with no paste and one with ferric oxide. Now, I assume ferric oxide really does very little (unlike chromium oxide) but who knows?

When I started my shave today I started with the blade that had the ferric oxide treatment and I started on my chin for the toughest test.

That blade wasn't very smooth so I put that blade aside and used my other two blades (still on the chin). Both of them were noticeably smoother so I finished shaving with them.

These were my 3 favorite razors by the way in general so I used my best blades for this test.

After the shave I decided to change things around for the shave tomorrow.

I took the blade that had been stropped with ferric oxide and went back to the Cnat and used a little slurry, then just water, then water and glycerin. I then stropped it just on plain leather.

This will be the first blade I use tomorrow. This was the rougher blade today so I'd like to see if it is better tomorrow.

Just to get more out of this test I took the other two blades and stropped both of them on chromium oxide and ferric oxide and then plain leather.

I'll use them last tomorrow to see if they are now the rougher shave. If so I'll conclude that the paste isn't doing anything positive for me.

If it turns out that the last two blades are still smoother then I'll conclude that what I'm noticing isn't the paste but something else. Maybe I just did a better job of honing in general on those blades or the steel is just better or whatever.

More tomorrow after the shave...

Just to add a few more comments on my prior thinking...

I don't really think the ferric oxide should make enough different to have made my shave rougher today as I've read that it's made for softer metal than steel.

I also had thought that paste would only add smoothness and not take away smoothness. I know that some people think "yes" and some think "no" on that issue but I was in the "yes" it should only improve an edge camp.