Thread: CrO2 on linen

Is there any reason not to put CrO2 on hanging linen for touch-ups? I remember someone saying it cuts quick so you have to be careful with all that length of strop.

But I have a hanging strop with both sides linen, so I was thinking I could do 5-10 passes on the green every few shaves, then go to the other plain side if I wanted to do more linen passes before leather.

I don't know why not as long as you go easy at first and figure out it's limitations. I think the softer and more plush the surface the faster it cuts --- so take it easy. I don't think anything is really written in stone ---but others will pipe in.

Justin

Usually linen is used as a pre-treatment. Supposedly it heats up the edge and helps align the edge. I don't see the point of using grit on the linen as opposed to leather. I doubt the roughness of the linen will help sharpen the edge. I would think it would prevent you from appling an even and light coat of grit to the strop which is very important. The grit will accumumlate on the linen unevenly and not help the sharpening process. Just my thoughts of course.

Appart fron TI paste and Dovo white, the only other paste I use on a linen strop is Rottenstone. This is mixed with the melted wax then applied hot to the linen followed by a hot iron to set the surface. I only have one strop set like this and mainly because it was my fathers strop and he always did it. As to cutting ability of this strop, I would say it does polish.
CrO2 would be a fast cutting abrasive and on an open linen or rough linen strop I would guess it could be usefull though wastefull. On a wax filled linen then applied on top might it be better and easier to maintain (scrape and reapply etc). Remember that once applied to raw linen it would be very hard to remove it later if you were dissatisfied with the results.

PuFF

Thanks guys. I'm going to give it a try...