Well I am looking to buy some Chromium oxide powder to make a balsa wood strop. The only kind I found was on japanese knife sharpening dot com. It was listed as 0.3 microns. Would this work in place of 0.5 microns,? Would it be even better to have two paddles, and go from 0.5 micron chromOX, to 0.3 micron ChromOX? Or should I just stay away from the stuff?
check classified i think chrisl was selling it( i hope i am not mistaken). Next source could be handamerican .GL
in general: Of course it will. The Cr2O3 I use comes from germany: Kremer.
It has been analysed to be at 0.3µm and works great.
BUT I don´t know about the quality of your sources Cr2O3 wich is the most important factor
I don't think there should be an issue with mixing 0.3 and 0.5 micron Chromium Oxide provided the purity is nearly the same.
The Crox I use on my Hard Balsa Strops is the same one used by Handamerican and is Guaranteed 99.9% pure and between 0.3 and 0.5 micons. In my opinion, this is the best you can get.
At the other end of the spectrum, though, is chromium oxide that is basically used to color paint. This can be purchased in large quantities for relatively a cheap price.
So I guess the answer might be, make sure you know what you are mixing or the results could be less than you expect.
Ray