Thread: Yellowstone Compound

I pasted a balsa wood paddle strop with some pure cerium oxide powder the same way I pasted another paddle strop just like it with hand american chromium oxide. I followed the wiki I think, where I dipped my finger in mineral oil then touched the powder, smeared it on the balsa, and repeat until it has a nice even light coating.

I haven't done enough razors on both to say anything "for sure," but I'll share some of my initial test results. I tried both the chromium and cerium oxides (on different days, etc) after finishing with my nakayama. I looked at everything under the scope at around 85x. The chromium oxide appears to be coarser than the nakayama, and the cerium oxide appears to be finer than the chromium oxide. I haven't made a distinct difference in fineness of the nakayama vs the cerium oxide yet, but they appear to be pretty close in grit.

Now, as far as the shaves. For me, there hasn't been much difference between chromium oxide and cerium oxide. Hitting he cerium oxide after the nakayama honestly didn't change the way it shaved much, if at all, and hitting the chromium oxide changes it a bit, but really not too much. If I had to pick one to keep, it would be cerium oxide, but to be honest, there really isn't a very big difference between the two as far as the shaves go. At least, not for me in my initial tests. There IS a difference, it's just not THAT much. I don't know if I expected a huge difference or what, but I'm at the point right now where I'm glad I have it and I'll continue to use it anytime I choose to use pastes, but it's just not different enough from chromium to really wow me. Certainly not the "everyone should own it immediately" feeling that I have about the nakayama

One test that I need to do is not have such a smooth/polished bevel to start with (ie coming off the nakayama). I've only used the cerium oxide after the nakayama, and after chromium oxide. I'm a little curious to see how it would feel vs chromium oxide after a ~12k hone or an escher or something. Perhaps this is where it would really shine (or fall on it's face).