Thread: Can Chromium Oxide overhone?

I bought some Hand American Chro Ox .5 micron powder and mixed a bit with some Norton honing oil and painted an X on some balsa wood. It absolutely works like a champ. I've only done 30-40 passes and no more at this point.

Question: Can one overhone on a chrome ox paddle? If I did like 100 passes, would I get a wire edge?

I'm amazed at how quickly the edge responds to the powder. At the end of 30 passes, the edge really has that tickle your nose steely smell to it. It definitely works that edge!

Chris L

You can waaaaay overhone on that. You can also make the edge too fragile to last.

Chris,

I've never done more than about 50 laps on a paddle strop with chromium oxide, so I'm not sure if you can overhone on a paddle. I have gotten some wicked wire edges with diamond paste on a paddle, so I suspect you could overdo it. I paste my pasted strops really, really lightly, though. If you use a heavy coat of paste it'll kill your edge fast if you do too many laps.

However, I mostly use chromium oxide on the linen side of my hanging strop. Again, I just use a dusting. On the hanging strop, I've found that pastes don't tend to overhone for some reason. On a really stubborn razor, sometimes I'll just keep working it until it's sharp, which can take hundreds of laps. I'm not recommending that, but I've done it a few times and I got a good edge that wasn't overhoned.

I do agree with Alan that pasted edges don't last as long as edges from a hone, although I don't understand why.

Chromium oxide to me seems analogous to the Belgian hones in that it's less harsh and less likely to create a wire edge, while diamond pastes are more like the Norton--faster cutting but also more prone to overhoning.

Anyway, that's just how I conceptualize it.

Josh

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

I do agree with Alan that pasted edges don't last as long as edges from a hone, although I don't understand why.

Thanks for the info Josh and Alan.

Josh, this is only a wild non-scientific theory as to why paste polished edges (polished to the "nth degree") don't last as long:.....

Under magnification with my stereo microscope, it's pretty easy with Chromium Oxide to get the edge/bevel like a mirror. Even the yellow coticule and my Chinese 12K if I spend time using them will leave a very slight scratch pattern of some sort. I wonder if on a microscopic level, the scratches in a scratch pattern being perpendicular to the edge of the blade act as a bunch of small stabilizer bars for the edge itself? The way I visualize an edge that is extremely polished as Chromium Oxide can produce is that the edge may then be weaker with less stability.

Just a theory. Who knows.

Chris L

You have to realize that any medium with grit can potentially overhone. Its just a matter of how many laps it will take.

It's possible that the chromium oxide does overhone, but the wire edge is tiny that we don't notice it. It's also possible that the stropping motion is less prone to creating wire edges than the honing motion...

In general, I find the less aggressive sharpening mediums don't create wire edges. I've never gotten a painful, wire edge shave from a coticule-honed razor, and I've never gotten a bad shave from my pasted hanging strops. I'm not really sure what's going on at the edge, but it works for me.

Do go easy with the pastes, though.

Josh

I guess they way I see it, each razor has a certain prescription for it's own sharpest edge...so like prescription drugs the right amount is the correct dosage.. Where if you take more trying to improve the effect you can cause damage... The same thought applies to razor edges, to much, can wreck the edge, the right amount brings it to the keenest and smoothest shave possible...
Jeez does that make any sense at all?????

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Jeez does that make any sense at all?????

Makes perfect sense to me, Glen. Thanks!

Chris L