Thread: Where to buy inexpensive Chromium Oxide Paste?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Ok let me explain the "Genesis of the Balsa Expolsion" on the shaving forums


Of course several of the guys decided this was a good market for Dumb Newbs to waste money and stated promoting "Balsa Strops" (you needed 1 leather strop now) next thing was the "Too Harsh Explosion" using pastes went from a good thing to everyone saying "OOOOOoooo pastes are too Harsh" the only change was the balsa

I don't get why you infer its hilarious dumb newb territory to use balsa in the first place? What's up with balsa + less aggressive paste?

Despite (or in spite) of what has been said denigrating balsa, and the fallacy that its use was promoted comparatively recently, I beg to differ.

It has been around for a considerably long time. Much longer than this forum has and much longer than its members - unless any ae 100 plus years old.

I believe the genesis began with an age old tradition of sharpening table knives on a long wooden board sprinkled with a fine cutting medium. This of course was too coarse for fine implements like razors, so a small paddle, often 'sprung' was used. Most of these span the late 1800s or earlier right up to the 1930s. Some of you may have seen them and wondered what they were, why they had parallel longitudinal grooves in them, why they were so worn.

They were used to sharpen razors. The grooves allowed a good charge of sharpening paste to be applied.
The Hamon company (started by perHamon in France in 1818, later known as freres Hamon) made pastes and paddles for this purpose. Examples still abound, so they must have been prolific. At some time, probably post 1900, balsa was used as a carrier for their zeolithe no.1 sharpening paste.

German firms made use of green paint at around this time. It had been known that green painted timber could sharpen knives for some time, the reason being that chrome oxide was the pigment used in green paint. From wood it made its way to leather as witness the prevalence of the small continental bench strops of the 1900s to 1940s that consisted of a small leather strap fixed on a wooden frame and painted green. Solid green. With oil paint.

I have two examples of a 1940s - 50s english paddle strop, 4 sided, with a carton of pastes and replacement panels. One panel is grooved timber, showing that the Hamon thinking was still sound. Another panel is balsa. The pastes are green and red.

So no, balsa was not dreamed up during the life of this forum, rather it is a long standing tradition. It worked in the past, it works now - how long would it have survived if it did not? Many people still use it with chrome oxide - as I do, and find that it works extremely well.

Denigrating it now is part of a tradition that is also very old - the one that states that old is bad, new is good. Very Orwellian, if you ask me.

Regards,
Neil

I can't comment on history, but as a beginner in straight razors, I found the 'aha' moment when I started finishing on balsa with Chromium Oxide powder. In fact, I started using it as a finisher on my hunting knives, etc, and it has not let me down, whether it be in a deer or on my face.

New, old, trendy, whatever it is -it is effective. It's also what The Classic Edge here in Ontario uses and recommends as a finisher, and Phil has quite a bit of experience in honing razors, and plenty of more expensive, marketable options he could use and recommend instead.

Originally Posted by The Classic Edge

Some may say that using Chromium Oxide on Balsa for your Straight Razor is an option, but we believe it is a NEED. So after you are done honing your razor on a finishing stone like a Belgian Coticule or a Synthetic stone like a 12K Naniwa you should do at least 10 passes on the Chromium Oxide to refine the edge to it's best potential. You will find out quickly that passing the Hanging Hair Test has just become 100% easier.

Strictly out of curiosity, what is it about Balsa wood would contribute to a "Too Harsh" edge vs leather? At the end of the day, the abrasive size is constant between the two, and balsa is not hard enough to abrade the steel. If you strop on leather after, I can't understand why there would be any difference except for price.

I find the statement "a good market for Dumb Newbs to waste money" interesting, considering the block of balsa wood and chromium oxide are the two cheapest honing materials in my collection. At the same time, I also find it silly that some people are willing to spend $100's of dollars on a leather strop, I ended up making one myself out of 3" saddle leather straps, and it does the job just as well as the russian leather strop that came with my first razor. Maybe I'm just not refined enough of a shaver to know (or care).

Originally Posted by TrqTTS

I can't comment on history, but as a beginner in straight razors, ).

Perhaps the easiest answer is for you to read the articles on the forum from the archives and see as all this happened... Me telling you is not going to change your already formed opinion, only you reading it and trying it yourself might do that...

As to the cost factor I think perhaps you mis-read what I wrote

here

"And if you like the effect of Balsa then all you need is $1 and a Home Depot, A "Balsa Strop" is a piece of wood"

Originally Posted by IndispensiBill

The CrOx they sell at Whipped Dog is repackaged from Kremer Pigments (Chrome Oxide Green - Mineral Pigments - Kremer Pigments Inc.), where it's sold as pigment for artists' paint. You can get 100g for $7.80US. That's enough to last several lifetimes. I've been using it on the balsa I got from Whipped Dog with their Poor Man's Strop kit and, along with the Iron Oxide on the other side, it's kept my razor nice and sharp.

DO you buy iron oxide from the same source? (they seem to have quite a range - are any of them appropriate for honing?)

Personally, I have never "seen" FeO as a honing medium. it's jewelers rouge designed for polishing very soft metal like gold and silver not steel. I think there are much better alternatives for razors. However like CrO you need to look for pure stuff. Many of the lapidary shops sell it but it's often times with with other compounds.

I have bought and use both Kremer pigments Chromium oxide 0.3 microns and Ferrous oxide 0.1 microns on my DIY balsa paddle
I use after the 12k hone at about 10-15 strops on the Chrox then similar on the Ferox before hitting the leather strop
I did a post in the hones forum on the DIY balsa strop with the part number etc

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...addles-oz.html
Here's the link

Anyone ever use the 1lb bar of CrOx from Amazon? probably royally screwed up with strop with it. i tried to use it like an oversized crayon on a whipped dog poormans strop after i got a good one from SRD, but I dont think I did it right or even got the right stuff.

Originally Posted by KLOOB

Anyone ever use the 1lb bar of CrOx from Amazon? probably royally screwed up with strop with it. i tried to use it like an oversized crayon on a whipped dog poormans strop after i got a good one from SRD, but I dont think I did it right or even got the right stuff.

Do you, perchance, mean this:

Amazon.com: Woodstock D2902 1-Pound Extra Fine Buffing Compound, Green: Home Improvement ?

From page two of this thread, this may be worth a read: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-bars-not.html
Since the advert itself describes the product as a 'buffing compound' - you may well have bought an item which is not pure chromium oxide. The linked thread suggests that the grit size may be suspect and not necessarily 0.5 microns which is going to lead to unpredictable results.


Lynn Abrams made a good Youtube video detailing how to treat a strop with various strop pastes - definitely worth a look, although it sounds as if you were more or less on the right lines by using it like a giant crayon on the strop. The key thing is that a little goes a long way and simply adding more paste to the strop won't make it better than a thin coating. You can cut a pair of denim jeans into strips and use them as a backing for the chromium oxide, if you wish to save buying another strop - use them like a normal hanging strop.

SRD sells pure Chromium oxide - it's probably a good idea to go down this route. There may be other places that sell it but are you sure that the product is pure? Being sure about this removes an element of uncertainty from the honing and stropping process, which is worth its weight in gold.


I did purchase the very cheapest chromium oxide powder from ebay, a yer ago now and have been using this on a strip of denim. I've noticed that the results seem to have got gradually better over time but I'm not sure whether this is a result of general improvement in honing and stropping skill or whether the CrOx has broken down into a finer grit size (Is this even possible with CrOx?? A good example of why buying from a reputable source is a good thing - I honestly have no idea what exactly I coated my strop with!