Cerium Oxide: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Just a few observations on my quest to investigate the attributes of a new polish for me: Cerium Oxide. I received a small package [2 1/2 oz] with a quart spray bottle with instructions for mixture. I belt sanded my balsa paddle strop to a smooth flat surface and applied the Cerium Oxide and let it dry.

I stropped about a dozen razors with the paddle strop and have shaved with about half of them. These are razors I know well.

The Good: The edge on these razors came out amazingly sharp and shaved well. But:

The Bad: The shave, although was good, was not as smooth as I was used to with Chromium Oxide. It was not a big difference. It was a subtle little difference. I could live with shaving with this edge.

The Ugly: No ugly. I just thought it was a good title for this thread.

Conclusion:

This is just a beginning relationship with the Cerium Oxide spray for me. I intend to use this with my razors but will still use the Chromium Oxide on my razors before they reach my shave den. I feel the Cerium Oxide is somewhere between the diamond paste and Chromium Oxide in performance. It is definitely a tool I will use in my search for the perfect edge.

bj

it could be that it's oversharpening

I've tried 5 laps, 10 laps, 25 laps, 45 laps, 90 laps

it would keep getting sharper, but it would lose the smoothness faster if more were done

with 90 passes it got so fragile that I could only do about 2 passes on my head before it started to pull

I've seen better results off cloth

how do you mix the cerium , how much do you put , and do you mix it with water or what?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ronnie brown

how do you mix the cerium , how much do you put , and do you mix it with water or what?

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The instructions say just to put the powder in the quart sprayer and fill to the line with water which is about a whole quart. I poured off about a third of the water after it settled to make the mixture a little thicker. It mixes easily but starts to settle to the bottom right away after mixing. This is a picture from another thread.

bj

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/...8f5c08fe82.jpg

how much cerium do you add to the water

I think that maybe there are not only variances in the CeOx out there, but also in the delivery systems....

Something that I have now accepted as a fact

Paste on balsa
Paste on leather
Paste on Felt

These all have different effects on the razor, listed from harshest to smoothest....

I built a 24" leather bench strop specifically for the CeOx I mixed it with Neatsfoot oil and applied it just like I did my CrOx, I got the really expensive stuff from Ocean Abrasives very very white in color...I don't really know if there is any difference between them all....
After using it on about 100 razors now I would still put it as a much finer paste than CrOx I am using 10 laps but it is a 24" strop so adjust to yours....

Glen. A big enough difference where it would be worth me building a leather bench strop to use instead of balsa?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

I think that maybe there are not only variances in the CeOx out there, but also in the delivery systems....

Something that I have now accepted as a fact

Paste on balsa
Paste on leather
Paste on Felt

These all have different effects on the razor, listed from harshest to smoothest....

I built a 24" leather bench strop specifically for the CeOx I mixed it with Neatsfoot oil and applied it just like I did my CrOx, I got the really expensive stuff from Ocean Abrasives very very white in color...I don't really know if there is any difference between them all....
After using it on about 100 razors now I would still put it as a much finer paste than CrOx I am using 10 laps but it is a 24" strop so adjust to yours....

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ronnie brown

how much cerium do you add to the water

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This place sells Cerium Oxide by the pound if you want to mix this yourself but I bought the quart bottle with I think a 2 1/2 oz package. That is enough to last for years I think. https://www.deltaonelapidary.com/detail.php?id=341

bj

IMHO yes, either leather or felt... Lynn I do believe is using the felt or fabic on the SRD strops, maybe he will jump in here....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

IMHO yes, either leather or felt... Lynn I do believe is using the felt or fabic on the SRD strops, maybe he will jump in here....

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I was wondering how it works on the SRD webbing. I'm pretty lazy and the 2" webbing replacement is pretty cheap.... Or the back of my current webbing i suppose.