Thread: Chromium Oxide and overhoning?

It might be worth while reading the thread "Fire Ash", regarding using fire ash on a a linen strop. I'd have thought the comments regarding its effects would be similar, though I think Chromium oxide is more abrasive than the fire ash.

400 passes so far on some newspaper very lightly rubbed with some of the .5 micron Chromium Oxide powder I have and sell, I'm doing 100 passes each night and shaving the next morning. So far....no wire edge and the shaves are comfortable. I'll keep going just to see what happens.

Chris L

Hey Chrisl

I got your Chromium Oxide last week and only now applied it to one of my home made strop. The leather is fuzzy but in a micro way not like suede. You can barely feel the grain.

I applied a minute quantity with a q-tip and rubbing it with my fingers (rubber glove) just a tiny bit at a time Didn't paste the strop green but applied enough to make it light green. After what I think was sufficent I took out my Wapi that is a good shaver by the way and made 20 laps than 20 laps on my regular strop.

WOW....WOW.... this razor is dangerously sharp!!!!! much more than before. I just glide it "over" the hair on my arm and every hair that it touches just pop-up. I'll be shaving with it in two days, can't wait.

Thanks

Jacques
Laval, Quebec

Excellent report, Jacques. Thanks!

I still have a bunch to provide to others and have had no problem shipping internationally. PM is the way to go to get a hold of me.

It is amazing how quickly and effectively Chromium Oxide works.

Chris L

I have a hanging leather strop and a chrom charged balsa plank that I lay on a flat granite surface. I find I get a better shave going straight from the Chrom to my face. I would have thought the leather would provde a smoother shave but I have found that to not so.

I suspect my strop technique on the leather may be off. Has anyone else had similar results?

Tim

Originally Posted by whisker

I have a hanging leather strop and a chrom charged balsa plank that I lay on a flat granite surface. I find I get a better shave going straight from the Chrom to my face. I would have thought the leather would provde a smoother shave but I have found that to not so.

I suspect my strop technique on the leather may be off. Has anyone else had similar results?

Tim

It's good that you bring that up. I love horsehide stropping before shaving (chrome ox then horsehide) but I've also thought about trying to shave without finishing on the horsehide just to see if I feel a difference. Add that on my other list of things to experiment with.

Chris L

Some thing has been a little off with the last couple of razors I've honed or touched up and I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong by thinking about what I'd changed about my honing routine. One change was that I've been finishing by stropping on the CO, so when I saw some of the posts on this thread, I was wondering if that was it--especially since, in my enthusiasim, I pasted it on the strop a mite bit heavy.

But I had one Boker I had not honed but rather just stropped 10 passes on the CO and so I shaved with it today to see how it was. It was fine, great actually, so I need to find another culprit for those problematic razors. The culprit is me, of course, one way or another and as new as I am to SRs and especially honing (I've honed perhaps 12 razors so far), it could be anything, starting with just sloppy or inconsistent technique.

But the Chromium Oxide has been a great finishing tool and I'm glad to add it to the arsenal!

Dan

You should try it. My strop is new cow hide and I have kept it clean from polish and paste it is a Fromm I think. I can not see any differance the linen side makes. I did not know about TM's fine looking strops when I made that purchase or I would have also had a horse hide strop. It seems to rasie a feather or fin from the edge which I find I just don't need to get a good BBS shave. I am also using a very light balsa which does have a little give to it and the wax bar of chrom not the pure powder.

I have been so impressed that I am going to the Hobby Store to pick up two very light planks to build a strop in the morning. Anyone wanting to donate or sell cheap a thimble of Chrom Powder I would then try wax bar on one side and powder on the other.

T

Doing more passes than what is necessary on the Chromium Oxide is both a waste of time and a waste of steel because the edge will reach a certain sharpness then not get any better. Beyond these two negatives I have never had an experience with the phenomenon commonly referred to "overhoning" with the stuff. Anyone who has read my posts in the past probably knows that I am really skeptical about the risk of overhoning with proper technique and fine stones in general though based on the results of my experiments and experiences. I can form a wire edge/overhoned edge when I am doing non-alternating strokes, but I never get them with light alternating strokes on finishing stones. I don't really use pastes much though so my experience is fairly limited in this area.

The best advice that I can give you is to find out for yourself rather than rely too much on what others speculate. Reading the comments of others can sometimes be helpful but this is really should not be substitute for your own experimentation; it should be a supplement. This issue in particular would be fairly easy to "scientifically" test in at least a fairly objective manner. Get an edge that is shaving great and then do tons of passes. Shave test again and hone some more. See what types of results you get and report them if you like. Many people claim to have been able to maintain an edge almost or completely indefinitely with pasted strops (my friend for one) so I would guess that if you added up the total number of passes that they used it would be at least easily in the hundreds if not in the thousands. If you think about it, what positive effect of preventing overhoning would shaving with the razor in between honing/pasted strop sessions have on the edge? I can't really think of a good reason myself, but if you can then please let me know.

David

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

I am really skeptical about the risk of overhoning with proper technique and fine stones in general...

David

-Slightly off topic-

I agree with this totally, I have yet to put a wire edge on a razor with a natural finishing stone. Seems like the shape of the abrasive tends to keep the edge at just the right level of sharpness without creating a burr.

-Back on topic-

For one thing, the "give" in the surface of a strop should prevent the burr (universal term for a wire edge) from forming since it slightly rounds the edge off. Adding CrO paste should not affect this too much, if at all.

But trial would be the only way to verify, proceed Chris et al.