Thread: my crome-ox paste experience

Originally Posted by SH-60Pilot

Do I need to grind some off, or use boiling water or what?

Like Bruce, I think you have some of the polishing compound bars used to load buffing wheels. Personally I would not use that for razors since it is an unknown. I have my Chromium Oxide packets now listed in the Classified section under the hones section.

Chris L

Originally Posted by JBHoren

Interesting, and good information.

My instance is somewhat different, in that I'll be applying CrO2 to a 3" x 24" piece of hard wool felt. I had a 2.5" x 8" piece of the same felt, and squirted some of my HandAmerican liquid CrO2 onto it; well, I learned that "felt welts", and the surface of that felt strap ended-up looking like a 3-D topographical map of the "hill country". Not so good for honing/stropping a straight razor.

So, in a nutshell: What is the best way to apply powdered CrO2 to hard wool felt, so that it will adhere to the felt, in its role as a pasted hanging strop?

Thanks in advance for your replies, and smooth shaving!!

I thought that the chemical formula for it was Cr2O3, as it was Chromium 3 Oxide.

Originally Posted by SH-60Pilot

Now, I had been under the impression that cromium oxide was either in a powder or a wet paste form. I recently ordered some and it was more of a very hard waxy consistency. I've seen the videos of people mixing the powder and paste with a little water and spreading it, but mine doesn't seem to want to do that very well. Do I need to grind some off, or use boiling water or what?

I have used the 'crayon' polishing compounds for quite some time on many blades and it performs very well. Use what you have and you will be fine.

Hello!

I have also some pastes offer under the Classified section...

My green Cr0 is coarser than my red one..

10 minutes stropping and you have a BBS shave-ready razor...

Have fun!

Hey Chris,
A belated thanks for the CrO packet you sent me a couple of weeks ago. I made a paste with some neets foot oil and applied it to the back side of my leather strop component. I did 10 passes on all six of my shavers and set them aside. As I have used each of them for the first time after the treatment, I give them 5 more laps on the green leather, 25 laps on the linen that some of the green rubbed off on, clean off the paste, 25 on the clean linen, and finally 50 on the leather. I have noticed a great improvement in the sharpness. I also made one of those eureka discoveries relating to my angle of attack! The combination of the Chrome Ox and the angle adjustment, my shaves have gotten a lot better over the last two weeks.

Thanks again,

The chromium oxide in the wax carrier is very effective, for me. Depending on who you get it from, but I believe Lee valley tools lists theirs at 0.5 micron, which is the same micron size as what Hand American sells. I use mine by very lightly using it just like a crayon, and I typically use it to make a X cross hatch shaped pattern on whatever my stropping medium is.

You can buy 3 inch wide Nexxcare 3M gentle paper tape, and I stick that on glass and use it as a stropping medium - its very effective and cheap, and the fact that it sticks to the glass by a PSA adhesive makes it so you don't have to tape newspaper down. Another good solution is larger size post it notes.

Ben