Thread: Too much Chromium Oxide?

On the web site of a popular shaving supply store, it is written about chromium oxide: "Over-use will decrease the closeness of the shave. Yet, proper use will give you the smoothest edge you have ever experienced, with no loss of closeness." I use chromium oxide a great deal and have never noticed it ever decreasing the closeness of my shaves. Before every shave, I do 10 strokes on the backside of my strop, which I have heavily coated with CO, then the final 40 finishing strokes. I've used this method for a couple of years and rarely do I have to actually hone my razors. I was just wondering what experiences other folks have had with CO, specifically if it decreased the closeness of your shave?

I only use Crox when i feel the need most of the time I prefer a edge straight a natural finishing stone. If I use a synthetic stone to finish then I use crox 100% of the time. I use 7 strokes in increments till i get the edge to where i need it. Never been a fan of counting laps, how she feels on my face is my gage. 7 strokes test 7 more test etc. When you get to a feeling you like then 7 strokes or so even 7 shaves dose the trick of me. I have found less is more to be true to crox as with almost any other honing experience.You can get the edge just perfect then have it go south quick if you go further. And yes I have cooked a edge on crox a few times but just to see how far i could push it.

A while back I got a bit tired of reading two different things about Pastes so I stopping reading and started testing becasue both could not be true


1, Using pasted strops creates a convex edge

2. Using a pasted strop creates a frail, thin, harsh, edge...

Here is what I did (Note I used Diamond which is actually a faster cutter than CrOx)

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...xperiment.html


I found in my experiment that neither statement was true within a reasonable amount of shaves, and I was really overdoing it with the pastes

I have been using about a half a dozen passes on crox after the finishing stone before the leather as it seems to give me a soothing edge. I don't use it at all otherwise.