Thread: Where to buy inexpensive Chromium Oxide Paste?

Originally Posted by cpcohen1945

I think that Larry at whippeddog.com will sell small quantities of CrOxide powder (0.5 micron), if you can't find it elsewhere.

I've been using a block of "Veritas honing paste" from Lee Valley Tools. It may be impure, but I can shave off a strop pasted with it. A bar of that stuff should last about 3 lifetimes.

. Charles

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.

I've been using SRD CrOx on a linen strop with great touch up results.

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!