Thread: CrOx....Necessary?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I got into a phase where I really wanted to be able to maximize the edge with my finishing stones, coticule or escher. I finally got there. I have nothing against someone using paste. For me personally to pay hundreds of dollars for a rare and exotic finishing stone ..... only to come off it and instead of appreciating the edge from the rare jewel ..... strop it on $0.50 worth of paste doesn't make sense. YMMV.

I haven't used paste, but I've used the powder on a balsa strop.

I get into modes (and am in one now) where I will try to maximize what I get from my stones and bare horse leather.

But it is an experimenting and screwing around kind of thing (along with attempting to justify to myself why I have dozens of stones), and in the end, the edge that I get with pure chromium oxide powder (not waxy sticks, etc) is still sharper and plenty smooth to shave.

I can say this logically, that I get that pure edge every single time with every single razor with the chromium oxide stone, and it's generally a better edge if you set up metrics to decide what's "better"...

.. but I still usually use the stones and nothing else but leather.

After 5 shaves, my edges are the same either way. With the natural stones, off the stone, they generally improve the first few shaves as the horse leather makes them better and better. With chromium oxide, they instead start better and come down to that point at 5 shaves. Whatever is used, after that, they stay very nice for a very long time, so not being the type who runs back and re-keens an edge once a week, it doesn't make too much difference.

Rational, no - especially not money-wise. Will I tell other people they're irrational for spending a lot of money on expensive stones to chase something that's mostly in our heads compared to selected modern abrasives? Yes. Will I do the same irrational thing? Most of the time, yes.

Originally Posted by HDguy

Hey everyone, going to purchase a SRD honing here in a few minutes and drop my Dovo Astrale in the mail to Lynn tomorrow morning for honing as it is just factory "shave ready" right now and cannot pass the HH test. My question for you on pre-shave stroping is the necessity of CrOx? I guess I am asking this mainly because I do not fully understand yet what it does for me and my SR. My strop is a 3 inch Latigo with a poly strap in addition to the Latigo leather.

CrOx, whats it do, do you think I need it? Thanks!

I almost never pass a hanging hair test, and I think the reason is because my arm hair is fine. I personally disregard this test because I fail when my edge is ready.

I'm a big fan of CrOx, because it cleans off the debris left over from honing, soap film, or whatever. It can lengthen the time between actual honings if the blade is dull from debris rather than lack of sharpness, which saves metal. Mine is on a balsa strop.

This was recommended to me by someone when I did all the right things to hone the blade but it still irritated my face when I shaved. It solved the problem on several razors.

Put another way, it can't hurt, it's not expensive, it doesn't take much effort, and can potentially help a lot.