my crome-ox paste experience

When I first started a few months ago, I got a small package of crome-oxide powder from Chris. You can get it at hand-american, but you have to get so much of the darn stuff, its cheaper and easier to just get the small envelope Chris will send you.

I had just made my strop and had a piece of left over leather, perfect for a paddle strop. I intended to paste it up, but never got around to it until tonight.

I've been shaving with the same razor for two months straight now, and finally I felt it was losing a bit of it's edge, so I took out Chris's instructions and went to work. I'm probably not the only one on here that was a bit doubtful the first time they put that green-paint-looking concoction (once mixed with some oil) on their strop. I don't know what I thought it would do, but I didn't imagine it would bring my razor back to day-one shape.

Did 10 laps on it. Let me tell you, this stuff is actual magic. Real magic, in powdered form. And then liquid magic before it dries on the strop. And then you have a magic strop that makes your razors magic. If you don't have this stuff, you need to get some, pronto.

Thanks Chris!! :bow

Excellent news. Just 15 minutes ago I came up from the basement where I was touching up two razors using newspaper with some of my Chrome Ox powder rubbed in the surface. I can't wait to shave with those two again. The edges are back in perfect form.

I still have enough left for others to try. Just PM me.

It really does work!

Chris L

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Originally Posted by Chrisl

Excellent news. Just 15 minutes ago I came up from the basement where I was touching up two razors using newspaper with some of my Chrome Ox powder rubbed in the surface. I can't wait to shave with those two again. The edges are back in perfect form.

I still have enough left for others to try. Just PM me.

It really does work!

Chris L

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I guess putting it on newspaper is a good way to go especially the first time so you don't "mess up" whatever strop you decide to experiment with.

-Tom (a newbie getting his head around the mystery of staying keen)

I've recently received my package of green magic, and yes, my story is much the same. I plan to make a balsa strop, but couldn't wait for that so rubbed a little on some newspaper. My oh my, now that is a clean smooth shave. I'd just honed two razors and coming off a norton 8k they're always a little harsh I find, not so after the .5 paste. That will be added to my repertoire each time, and for refreshing next time they start dragging.

Thanks again ChrisL for offering this to us, I can't buy that stuff in the UK, so it's been very useful indeed.

Cheers,

J.

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!!

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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!!

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Having read Josh Earl's instructions in this thread, as well as PMing both Josh and Chrisl and receiving excellent info, I took the HandAmerican liquid CO and put a drop on my HandAmerican magnetic felt. I rubbed it with my finger tip in a circular motion spreading it around until it was used up and applied another drop. I did not do layer upon layer, just blended the edges. I am not sure if the thicker felt that you have would behave differently then this thin piece. I have used this setup on a few razors with excellent results doing 5 round trips using the weight of the blade.

I've been complaining that HandAmerican had let the side down by not supplying me. Well they just got around to me and I received my liquid chromium oxide.

I have put the HandAmerican liquid CO on leather. Rubbed it around until everything was green and wiped off any excess with a tissue paper.

I have to say the results on the blade are to smooth out the edge better than any other product I have used.

I'm still undecided if it may be too sharp for me although I understand many on the forum believe too sharp is a technique problem rather than a razor problem. Still I for one found Feather Straight and Feather DE blades to be just too aggressive for my technique and this Chromium Oxide is pretty close to Feather quality.
No harshness, super smooth and super sharp.

Well done HandAmerican, this product has to rate as the best value for money razor product available. I salute you.

Incidentally, you do get lots in the bottle and I have found that if you put some on a mirror finish blade and polish it, it works wonders. I'm sure it will clean up scratched plastic such as a watch glass etc.,etc., many uses for an exceptional product. Finally, my wife used a bit as a dye. She makes teddy bears. The white mohair material turned to a lovely mint green. Every home should have some.

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Originally Posted by English

Incidentally, you do get lots in the bottle and I have found that if you put some on a mirror finish blade and polish it, it works wonders. I'm sure it will clean up scratched plastic such as a watch glass etc.,etc., many uses for an exceptional product. Finally, my wife used a bit as a dye. She makes teddy bears. The white mohair material turned to a lovely mint green. Every home should have some.

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I've heard that old timers used to paint a board with green paint and strop their razor on that. Chromium oxide, it seems, was what put the green in green paint. :)

For applying powder to a cloth surface, I usually use plain water. If you have the liquid stuff, you don't have much choice. :)

Josh

Chrisl, I just got your mail today. I was amazed by the speed you took. (if only my other pkgs form some Ebay vendors were as efficient!) I cant wait to try said magic out! I thank you again for your help and just want to say your commitment to continuing the STR8 expierence and enjoyment of is top notch!

Hello All...

I just order the Felt Pad from HandAmerican, I already have the CR but in the paste version....Can I use it over the Felt Pad? Or should I get some dry CR to use it?

If I need it dry, is there any recommendation to dry some of the paste that I already have?

I finally got around to trying out my sample from ChrisL this week. I applied the powder to newspaper and stropped my Ebro wedge on it, 50 times I think. I'm sorry to say, the result was the absolute WORST shave I've had in my 6 week career of straight razor shaving. Even the wide parts of my cheeks that are usually the easiest to get smooth came out rough. I had to redo the edge with 100 laps on the Spyderco UF (and have had a couple of really great shaves since then). The only thing I can think might have gone wrong is that I had the newspaper wrapped around the Spydie to try to get a flat surface, but the hone is narrow enough that the newspaper may have been too convex. Anyway, it was pretty disappointing. :(

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Originally Posted by BurnBeGone

I finally got around to trying out my sample from ChrisL this week. I applied the powder to newspaper and stropped my Ebro wedge on it, 50 times I think. I'm sorry to say, the result was the absolute WORST shave I've had in my 6 week career of straight razor shaving. Even the wide parts of my cheeks that are usually the easiest to get smooth came out rough. I had to redo the edge with 100 laps on the Spyderco UF (and have had a couple of really great shaves since then). The only thing I can think might have gone wrong is that I had the newspaper wrapped around the Spydie to try to get a flat surface, but the hone is narrow enough that the newspaper may have been too convex. Anyway, it was pretty disappointing. :(

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Yikes, that's not good!:(. Let's try to troubleshoot this. How was the razor shaving prior to stropping on the chromed newspaper? How much did you put on the newspaper? I assume you stropped spine leading like stropping on leather? We need to figure this out. I don't want you to give up on chrome ox. Hundreds+ of us use it that way and have superb results. Please give more info.

Thanks

Chris L

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Originally Posted by Chrisl

Yikes, that's not good!:(. Let's try to troubleshoot this. How was the razor shaving prior to stropping on the chromed newspaper? How much did you put on the newspaper? I assume you stropped spine leading like stropping on leather? We need to figure this out. I don't want you to give up on chrome ox. Hundreds+ of us use it that way and have superb results. Please give more info.

Thanks

Chris L

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To answer your questions in order:
- The razor was starting to get hard to shave with, about ready for a touch-up, before stropping on the CrOx, but it was definitely MUCH worse afterwards.
- I used the powder pretty sparingly, a pretty sparse coating, not even close to uniform, though there were still a couple lumps that the razor smoothed out on the first couple of passes.
- Yes, I stropped spine-first.

After I stropped, the bevel was nice and shiny, in fact a tiny spot of rust I had been unable to get out of it was nearly removed, so I was quite excited to use it. Then I rinsed and dried, skipped the linen, and stropped on the leather as usual before shaving. As I said, my best guess is that the newspaper wasn't properly flat. If it was bulging upward too much due to how it was wrapped around my stone, I guess it could have rounded my edge as I stropped.

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Originally Posted by BurnBeGone

After I stropped, the bevel was nice and shiny, in fact a tiny spot of rust I had been unable to get out of it was nearly removed, so I was quite excited to use it. Then I rinsed and dried, skipped the linen, and stropped on the leather as usual before shaving. As I said, my best guess is that the newspaper wasn't properly flat. If it was bulging upward too much due to how it was wrapped around my stone, I guess it could have rounded my edge as I stropped.

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Actually, after the CrO, I hit the linen quite hard, I mean, I do about 50+ passes on the linen and then on the leather. I usually don't use the linen side if I don't use the CrO.
Try to spend some time in the linen side of your strop after using CrO. Also, apply a small amount of CrO before hitting the linen.

This works best for me.

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Originally Posted by vulcano

Hello All...

I just order the Felt Pad from HandAmerican, I already have the CR but in the paste version....Can I use it over the Felt Pad? Or should I get some dry CR to use it?

If I need it dry, is there any recommendation to dry some of the paste that I already have?

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See my post above. I used the liquid on the felt with good results. Chris recommends mixing the dry CO to make a paste so it is the same.

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Originally Posted by JimmyH-AD

See my post above. I used the liquid on the felt with good results. Chris recommends mixing the dry CO to make a paste so it is the same.

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Thank you Jimmy, but the liquid is the same as the paste? the paste looks like a grease paste.....

Josh make the paste, but it is for a leather, I dont know if we should do something different on a felt


Thanks for your answer

I wouldn't recomend pasting the Handamerican felt. I used the Handamerican paste on the felt and didn't really like it. The felt seamed rough before the paste and I just didnt like stroping on it. I then pasted a bovine leather pad per Josh's instruction thread using the X pattern. It seemed to work well. The draw was a little much at first due to the leather not the CRO2. After a little use it sofened up and seems to do fine.
I now use the felt to touch up pocket and kitchen knives. I don't know if it does any good but I don't like to waste the pad.

I also found that my Union Spike doesn't like the chrome as well as the dovo. The spike shaves its best off the coticule where the dovo really benifits from the CRO2 bench strop. The others I really haven't tried yet.

Don

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Did 10 laps on it. Let me tell you, this stuff is actual magic. Real magic, in powdered form. And then liquid magic before it dries on the strop. And then you have a magic strop that makes your razors magic. If you don't have this stuff, you need to get some, pronto.

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Very humorous characterization! :roflmao

My past experience with CrO is that you can easily overhone an edge with it. I would
recommend starting with only a few strokes (10-15) and proceed from there after test
shaving.

- Scott

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BurnBeGone

To answer your questions in order:
- The razor was starting to get hard to shave with, about ready for a touch-up, before stropping on the CrOx, but it was definitely MUCH worse afterwards.
- I used the powder pretty sparingly, a pretty sparse coating, not even close to uniform, though there were still a couple lumps that the razor smoothed out on the first couple of passes.
- Yes, I stropped spine-first.

After I stropped, the bevel was nice and shiny, in fact a tiny spot of rust I had been unable to get out of it was nearly removed, so I was quite excited to use it. Then I rinsed and dried, skipped the linen, and stropped on the leather as usual before shaving. As I said, my best guess is that the newspaper wasn't properly flat. If it was bulging upward too much due to how it was wrapped around my stone, I guess it could have rounded my edge as I stropped.

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I think the best way to use the CrO is on a freshly-honed razor, only 5-10 laps, to get that final smoothness and polish. Then, as you build up shaves, depending on beard toughness, density, number of passes, whatever, it will start to drag a little. That's when you go back to the CrO for another 10 laps. I feel if you wait until it's almost ready to go back to the hone, even just the UF, it's too late. And 50 laps is probably excessive, too. You were in effect using the CrO as a hone, and it's really just a polisher.

I love Chromium Oxide.
I have some from Chris and some from Hand American.
I also found a chemical supplier who will supply any grade you want.
It is incredibly cheap to purchase because it is a basic pigment they use to make some green paints.

So everybody wins.

What I do not like about this post is the throwaway comments about using Chromium Oxide on newspaper as if that is a way to go.

That hides an option that is important to understand.

Newspaper on its own will give you a sharper smoother edge than Chromium Oxide. For me it's too sharp almost like diamond paste.

Still what do I know, it was my Grandad that used newspaper to hone his razor and all the household cutlery knives . He was always clean shaven and never had razor burn.

So to avoid confusion,

Stropping on newspaper will give you a smooth very very sharp edge. It is very inexpensive.

Stropping on Chromium oxide will give you a very sharp edge. It is more expensive than newspaper but still very inexpensive.

Depending on your skins sensitivity, you may prefer one over the other but you should really try them both and see for yourself which one you prefer.

I make this post as a point of clarification only.

I agree with you, and also believe you've made a good point. Stropping on plain newspaper must be acknowledged as a viable and proven stropping/polishing method. It's always been one of my favorite ways to finish an edge I've just honed prior to leather stropping and shaving. I've simply found that rubbing a very small amount of chromium oxide into the newspaper surface gives me very fast results, whereas plain newspaper takes me a bit longer to feel like the edge is where I want it to be. That said, I find stropping on plain newspaper (I'm talking about a few layers of newspaper taped very tightly to a flat surface -I've been using my lapped Chinese 12K stone for a flat surface since it's the size of a brick) is very relaxing.

Chris L

Quote:

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Originally Posted by English

I love Chromium Oxide.
I have some from Chris and some from Hand American.
I also found a chemical supplier who will supply any grade you want.
It is incredibly cheap to purchase because it is a basic pigment they use to make some green paints.

So everybody wins.

What I do not like about this post is the throwaway comments about using Chromium Oxide on newspaper as if that is a way to go.

That hides an option that is important to understand.

Newspaper on its own will give you a sharper smoother edge than Chromium Oxide. For me it's too sharp almost like diamond paste.

Still what do I know, it was my Grandad that used newspaper to hone his razor and all the household cutlery knives . He was always clean shaven and never had razor burn.

So to avoid confusion,

Stropping on newspaper will give you a smooth very very sharp edge. It is very inexpensive.

Stropping on Chromium oxide will give you a very sharp edge. It is more expensive than newspaper but still very inexpensive.

Depending on your skins sensitivity, you may prefer one over the other but you should really try them both and see for yourself which one you prefer.

I make this post as a point of clarification only.

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Let me get this right, you can just run your razor back on forth over a taught piece of newspaper without any kind of abrasive, just like stropping, and you can actually sharpen the razor better than with an abrasive? is the ink in the paper abrasive, or is it the paper fiber itself?

SH,

The ink is a very fine abrasive, I believe some say it's effectively 1/10-1/4 micron and paper is also very slightly abrasive. So using a piece of newsprint with the greatest amount of black ink on it that you can find will enhance the polish on your edge, but it needs to be sharp to start with.

English,

Who is this supplier of incredibly cheap Cr2O3 in whatever grade needed?

To answer you question quickly, I would need to search the net for some time.
I didn't keep my search. I thought buying off Chris was a lot quicker and easier.
But it was an American Company with a UK Sub and they made the Chromium oxide in any grade of grain size that you required.

If it is really important to you, let me know and I'll try searching again and try and find them for you.

Please let me know.

I don't think the New York Times is even good for that:D

I think the Company was called Elementis.

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?

SH,

The chromium oxide we want should be a 1/2 micron powder or the same suspended in some type of leather friendly vehicle. The stuff that comes as a polishing wheel charging compound in a wax base may or may not be the stuff we want. The reason being is that the particle size is generally an unknown and probably coarser than we want unless the maker of the bar of grit states specifically that the grit size is .5 micron.

good luck

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Originally Posted by Bruce

SH,

The ink is a very fine abrasive, I believe some say it's effectively 1/10-1/4 micron and paper is also very slightly abrasive. So using a piece of newsprint with the greatest amount of black ink on it that you can find will enhance the polish on your edge, but it needs to be sharp to start with.

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I go from Chrisl's powder (on paper) --> plain newspaper --> latigo strop

The newspaper I'm currently using is a dark photo (lots of ink). To be precise it's Paul McCartney's face, since he was recently in the news here in Quebec.

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Originally Posted by SH-60Pilot

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

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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

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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!!

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

Quote:

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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?

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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...:nj

Have fun!:tu

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.:y

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