I get a chuckle out of this, because it's being (this particular post) brought up on another forum by a user who likes to troll Lee Valley despite the fact that there are dozens or hundreds of instances of LV doing charitable things and being more honest than they need to. They are good to their employees, good to community and good to their customers - at the expense of the owners.

Zero of those from the folks that troll them as far as I can tell (this is directed not at anyone in this thread, I certainly understand the concern from a razor user's perspective. I've used the hand american powder that star shaving used to sell, I've used a green bar from sears that was $1.99 and I've used the KG green bar that McMaster Carr sells. The latter two have larger particles in them, it's quite easy to notice.

I don't think anyone here would ever find anything more than a stray light scratch here or there if using the formax microfine honing compound on a razor, and certainly it has always brought the polish up from every stone I've used. If there are any particles at their theoretical limit (300 grit), I certainly have never seen them.

(I wouldn't suggest the hard wax sticks that McMaster sells, though - I'm sure you could shave with them, but you can actually tell they're more coarse on tools).

In an actual use test of the formax microfine compound vs. the hand american powder (which is just pure graded 0.5 micron chrome ox pigment), I don't ever remember being able to tell the difference of razor keenness *in actual use*, which should probably be what we judge things by, but I guess not in the days of the internet.

My real issue with the wax sticks is that I have no need for the wax on any of my strops. I'd rather have the powder and affix it to the strop with a very small amount of light oil. Just the same, I no longer use any of them, anyway, as I think a vintage uncharged linen does a better job making a smooth and sharp shaving edge.

I'm surprised at how many times i've been linked from woodworking forums back to this forum, though, based on the supposition that Lee Valley is a dirty pool company. They probably just weren't experts on the product in this case, as it's an ancillary good for them. Nonetheless, of the sticks that are not specifically aimed at razor sharpeners, it's the finest I've found in terms of the abrasive size and the polish it leaves, and it's also the only non-razor specific one that I've run into that the wax is relatively soft - the others are designed

I would imagine the alumina is in the formax stick (and others) because it's inexpensive and because the users of these sorts of things don't have the patience for a buffing compound that is only chrome ox - certainly on tools, pure hand american powder is slower than the formax compound - to the point that it wouldn't be practical for carvers. Actually, i'm not sure that even the formax is that practical for carvers, as the compounds traditionally sold to carvers before the days of internet spec finding (as opposed to judging the compounds based on how well they work in a carving cycle where edge quality and cutting speed are both important factors) were 3 micron-ish alumina only compounds. The amateur woodworking market drives spec sheet buying rather than relying on experienced guidance.