Thread: CR02 on non-compliant surface?

Had an idea I wanted to run by you all to see if anyone has ever tried this before. Note: no speculation please, just experiences. My idea: strop with CR02 on a hard, non-compliant surface such as hard wood, or even a lapped aluminum plate.

I gave up on CR02 a while ago, though I liked the results, because of the frequent touch-ups required by my soft W&B razors and my very tough beard. Using a pasted strop, I would eventually convex my edge into oblivion, & it took a lot of work to reset the bevel. So I resorted to using my Swaty for touch-ups. Problem solved.

But I did like the silky smooth edge CR02 gives you. So I wonder if a harder surface would avoid convexing the edge. Worth a try?

They make bench strops out of basically a block of wood with leather glued in top. However the issue is your stropping. You should not be getting that result. A bench strop might help you. I use a bench strop with my diamond paste as well as CrO. Contact Tony Miller that's where I got mine.

Why not touchup on your Swaty, and then do a few (like maybe 5) passes on chrome ox - best of both worlds.

PS What do you mean by "frequent" touchups?

I use a slab of poplar glued to an 8x3 bathroom tile, then lapped flat. Works wonderfully well, and no convexing no matter how many laps you give it. I've got one with chrome oxide and another for 0.1 micron diamond.

@bigspendur: "However the issue is your stropping." Could very well be true. I stopped using the CR02 quite a while ago, when I was still kind of a noob & my stropping technique was pretty ratty. I might get better results with a pasted strop now than I did then.

@holli: "What do you mean by 'frequent' touchups? " If I do 3-pass shaves, plus a water-only pass over the spots I've missed, I get about a week's worth of shaves before I have to touch up. It takes about 20 laps on the Swaty to feel that draggy feeling, like there's honey smeared on the hone, to let me know I'm good to go again. I also have to use linen + leather before every shave. I actually can keep an edge going longer than a week just by stropping, but when I do eventually have to touch it up, I have to do that much more work, so I end up not having saved anything.

@mparker: Ah, that's what I was looking for! So it does work. I just flattened a piece of oak & pasted it with CR02. The initial result seems encouraging! Of course only time will tell whether I can maintain an edge indefinitely this way. If not, I'll follow Holli's sage advice & touch up on the Swaty, then use the CR02 to finish.

Originally Posted by Johnny J

I just flattened a piece of oak & pasted it with CR02.

If that's all you did then it will wind up warping. Generally the pasted side becomes concave so the blade will only touch the edges. The wood needs to be glued to something stout and non-warpable. I use a slab of tile for this, and a really good glue like gorilla glue.

Ah, thanks for the tip! That makes sense. I think I can hunt down a scrap of tile or aluminum plate or something.

Originally Posted by Johnny J

Had an idea I wanted to run by you all to see if anyone has ever tried this before. Note: no speculation please, just experiences. My idea: strop with CR02 on a hard, non-compliant surface such as hard wood, or even a lapped aluminum plate.

I gave up on CR02 a while ago, though I liked the results, because of the frequent touch-ups required by my soft W&B razors and my very tough beard. Using a pasted strop, I would eventually convex my edge into oblivion, & it took a lot of work to reset the bevel. So I resorted to using my Swaty for touch-ups. Problem solved.

But I did like the silky smooth edge CR02 gives you. So I wonder if a harder surface would avoid convexing the edge. Worth a try?

I did not reply sooner because I did not test it but I do want
to share that diamond polishers use brass, copper or apple wood
laps. They charge them with diamond dust and lubricate with
oil, olive oil in some cases. Some wood carvers use hardwood and
after charging with abrasive even use a honing push stroke
in contrast to a pulling stropping stroke.

Any flat even grained hardwood charged with abrasive would work...
and can be sanded flat as needed over time. Balsa is interesting
because of the open grain that charges deeply with CrOx so easy.
It is not dimensionally stable so it is mounted on finished and sealed
hardwood. Other even grained wood like boxwood, cherry, apple
could also be used without balsa especially with something
like 1 or 2 micron grit.

One comment is that a wood hone is hard to refresh the way a
hone can be lapped to a fresh surface. For individual use this
should not be an issue but could be a show stopper for a honemaster
doing a hundred+ blades a week.

A balsa or hardwood hone should be a better choice for a touchup than
an aggressive hanging strop of the same grit especially at the finishing
level.

I was just asking about this method at the Rochester mini meet! Glad to hear that it works. I'm a gonna try it!