Chromium Oxide Confusion

Hello all,

When making your own CrOx pasted strop the videos on SRP suggest that less is more. Just sprinkle your CrOx onto balsa wood treated with some mineral or baby oil. A very light coating then just lightly go over it with your sr8.

On the other hand I have seen some internet sales and Ebay postings for balsa strips loaded with CrOx, has that nice pool table coloring to it. Needless to say once you try to use the balsa that is loaded will you not just scrape off the CrOx thereby just wasting all that product? Therein lies my confusion. Am I missing something or is the loaded strop used in some other way?

Thank you.

Either one will work. If you have put too much on, than it will stick to the spine of your razor, and you can wipe it off. After a few uses you will wipe all the excess off with your razors, and then you should be fine.

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Originally Posted by Zorro

Hello all,

When making your own CrOx pasted strop the videos on SRP suggest that less is more. Just sprinkle your CrOx onto balsa wood treated with some mineral or baby oil. A very light coating then just lightly go over it with your sr8.

On the other hand I have seen some internet sales and Ebay postings for balsa strips loaded with CrOx, has that nice pool table coloring to it. Needless to say once you try to use the balsa that is loaded will you not just scrape off the CrOx thereby just wasting all that product? Therein lies my confusion. Am I missing something or is the loaded strop used in some other way?

Thank you.

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OK how to explain the difference in these two statements???? :hmmm:

The first statement (in Orange) is giving advice on how to do things the right way for success in getting the best edge...

The second statement is a selling advertisement, and we are conditioned to think "More is Better",,, so it looks more appealing when coated with way more product, even though it is a waste at the least, and a detriment to great edge at the worst

Hope that helps...

With any paste you don't want to put much on the strop be it balsa or leather or another other material. You are right that if you put to much on when you go to use it you will scrap of the excess but that happens pretty much with however much you use cause some of the paste always seems to not get embedded in the leather or wood.

Now the main reason you don't want to have the pool table look to your pasted strop is that it will not cut well thus it will not sharpen the razor well. When you paste a strop you are embedding micro particles into the strop that when you use a stropping motion on it you force those embedded particle slightly above the level of the leather or wood and they then cut metal away from the edge of your razor sharpening the razor. When you have very little paste on the strop the metal will come off the blade and be pushed into gaps in between the particles and then shed from the strop leaving the embedded particles clear and able to cut more metal. If you have the pool table look those metal shaving quickly fill any gaps in the embedded particals and are not able to be shed from the strop. You end up with a smooth surface that the blade will glide over without being cut. If you really over paste a strop you won't even get the blade to cut at all.

In short the particles in the paste need room to do their job.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

OK how to explain the difference in these two statements???? :hmmm:

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:idea: Amazing how a little formatting can make things so clear.


Well respected guys who do nothing but shaving related stuff, vs ebay.

Not much of a contest.

The first few times I tried pasting, I ended up with the pool table look, and I was severely disappointed. After a while they broke in a bit and worked MUCH better. Now that I just paste a strop rather than balsa, I know to keep it light and even. Just enough to give it a green tint, and it cuts like a dream, which means my razors do too.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

OK how to explain the difference in these two statements???? :hmmm:

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You will find that there are a lot of razors and supplies sold by vendors on eBay that APPEAR to be of good quality, but in practice are crap. Unfortunately, but rightly, SRP does not allow negative comments about vendors so we cannot tell you which ones of them suck. Too often, they do a little reading on the forums, learn just enough to grasp the basics, and then start pretending to be experts. Caveat emptor!

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Originally Posted by Utopian

You will find that there are a lot of razors and supplies sold by vendors on eBay that APPEAR to be of good quality, but in practice are crap. Unfortunately, but rightly, SRP does not allow negative comments about vendors so we cannot tell you which ones of them suck. Too often, they do a little reading on the forums, learn just enough to grasp the basics, and then start pretending to be experts. Caveat emptor!

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Too true Ron, I would listen to the guy's on this site, it will save you in the long run.

Below is a little vintage paddle strop I picked up from Neil Miller. I applied Cerium Oxide to this strop. This may even be a little heavy whether you use CrOX or CeOX.
Mike:o

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

OK how to explain the difference in these two statements???? :hmmm:

The first statement (in Orange) is giving advice on how to do things the right way for success in getting the best edge...

The second statement is a selling advertisement, and we are conditioned to think "More is Better",,, so it looks more appealing when coated with way more product, even though it is a waste at the least, and a detriment to great edge at the worst

Hope that helps...

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6gun,

For the benefit of those of us who think we know what we are doing when we make our paddle strop/hones richly green, will you explain the harm that too much CrOx will do to an edge? :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Bruce

6gun,

For the benefit of those of us who think we know what we are doing when we make our paddle strop/hones richly green, will you explain the harm that too much CrOx will do to an edge? :shrug:

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Castel33 hit on most of the key points, there should be an interaction between the Surface of the strop and the Razors for the paste to function at it's best..

I would not go quite as far in his theory of the metal particles, but I do agree that the Razor and the surface of the strop have to have contact and not just the paste and the razor...

Keep in mind the the actual stropping surface has a huge impact on how the pastes function...
In General:
The harder the surface the more cutting action, and the softer the surface the more smoothing action....

Personally I don't use Balsa just for that reason, and I tend to use a Felt strop for Diamond for the same reason...

Also keep in mind a little CrO properly applied can look very green and you might assume a whole load of the stuff was put on when it was not. If you are not careful and you overdo it you will just have a mess on your hands and your blades which is not good for either.

Thank you very much for the information. That pretty much clears things up for me. You are a credit to the site one and all.