green chromium Oxide stick

[Lupin]

I have a stick of green chromium oxide, it's not quite soft nor too hard but it lumps when I try to apply it to a piece of leather...

Any tricks or ideas? Working it in with your fingers isn't the best idea... (it gets into your pore quite quickly and cannot be washed out..you end up with sparkling fingers for a few days) I was thinking of taking a piece and trying to dilute...thin it out, with a oil like neatfoot oil. Then I can probably get it to penetrate the strop surface easier.

I can seem to find anyone selling chromium oxide in liquid form.

Thanks

Éric

[JBHoren]

I have a stick of green chromium oxide, it's not quite soft nor too hard but it lumps when I try to apply it to a piece of leather...

Any tricks or ideas? Working it in with your fingers isn't the best idea... (it gets into your pore quite quickly and cannot be washed out..you end up with sparkling fingers for a few days) I was thinking of taking a piece and trying to dilute...thin it out, with a oil like neatfoot oil. Then I can probably get it to penetrate the strop surface easier.

I can seem to find anyone selling chromium oxide in liquid form.

Shalom, Eric!

I also have such a CrO2 stick. I use the method depicted in the photo-essay "How to Apply Paste to Your Strop" (use the "meaty" portion of your palm, below the thumb) to work-in the compound. Also, you might want to find/filch a medical exam glove and avoid turning Mother Thumb and her Four Sons into a strop... Ouch!

If you decide to mix the crumbled CrO2 with an oil:

Be careful not to use too much liquid;
Avoid temptation, and resist the temptation to apply too much of the paste; and
Allow anywhere from 2-4 days for the applied paste to "set-up", before using the strop.

Smooth shaving!!

[Thebigspendur]

Very often those sticks are meant as a polishing rouge and the grit size is not suitable for a razor sharpening so you need to know the grit size first.

Personally I would rather either get the stuff premixed as a spreadable compound or as a powder and mix it myself. Sticks are really messy to use as the crumble and are hard to spread evenly.

[Lupin]

Very often those sticks are meant as a polishing rouge and the grit size is not suitable for a razor sharpening so you need to know the grit size first.

Personally I would rather either get the stuff premixed as a spreadable compound or as a powder and mix it myself. Sticks are really messy to use as the crumble and are hard to spread evenly.

The stick comes from Lee Valley tools, it has 0.5 micron particle size.
http://www.veritastools.com/Products/Page.aspx?p=120

Éric

[Monkeyboy]

Where's the best place to find Cr02 premade in a compound?

[Thebigspendur]

Most Cr0 for razors is around 50 or 60K grit. I don't know how the micron- grit translates. Someone had a chart somewhere either here or on SRP.

I know there is a guy on SRP who sells the powder and I think Handamerica sells the premade stuff.

[Maximilian]

I don't know how the micron- grit translates. Someone had a chart somewhere either here or on SRP.


Is this (http://www.faceters.com/askjeff/answer67.shtml) what you were looking for?

[ignatz]

Lupin;

The suggestion by JBHoren is on the right track, but it can go much faster. I always turn to a trick I learned from a fellow in the shoemaker's trade. When confronted with a paste shoe polish which had become too hard to use he dissolved it with either naptha (benzine) or lacquer thinner. The shoe wax went on almost like a syrupy paint and the excess solvent evaporated away almost immediately.

I use the same technique whenever I have to deal with sticks of polishing compound. I cut and crumble bit so of the stick into a glass jar, add some solvent to it, mix it down to uniformity and then 'paint' it onto the strop, wheel or other surface. I don't have to wait any longer than a minute or two for it to be ready to use.

- Ignatz

[Thebigspendur]

Lupin;

The suggestion by JBHoren is on the right track, but it can go much faster. I always turn to a trick I learned from a fellow in the shoemaker's trade. When confronted with a paste shoe polish which had become too hard to use he dissolved it with either naptha (benzine) or lacquer thinner. The shoe wax went on almost like a syrupy paint and the excess solvent evaporated away almost immediately.

I use the same technique whenever I have to deal with sticks of polishing compound. I cut and crumble bit so of the stick into a glass jar, add some solvent to it, mix it down to uniformity and then 'paint' it onto the strop, wheel or other surface. I don't have to wait any longer than a minute or two for it to be ready to use.

- Ignatz

There are many things you can use as a carrier but personally I would stay away from mineral spirits since they aren't the best things for leather. I would rather use either water or some type of oil. It may work good for shoe leather but shoes usually are treated and have layers of wax and other things on the surface and if the shoe guy uses it and your shoes look good your not worried about drying out the leather. A couple years later you probably throw them away anyway. Hopefully you will use a strop for the rest of your life.

[ignatz]

To clarify what I said in my previous post. I am in no way advocating the use of any 'mineral spirits' (which would mean such things as turpentine or white spirits). Those would be terrible, not only for the leather, but the fumes and so forth from those do not evaporate in any sort of short period and would be rather offensive.

Regarding the idea of using water as a carrier for the crumbled up chromium oxide stick, well, there might be a compatibility problem, most especially if the oxide stick is formulated with some sort of wax as the binding material... and this is quite often the case with stick compounds.

Of course, an oil will serve to dissolve waxes, but unfortunately, all hydrocarbon-based oils have a rotting effect on leather in the long run. The only oil I could even begin to recommend for this usage would be one specially formulated for leather care such as Neatsfoot oil (an organic oil made from animal bone) follow this link for more information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neatsfoot_oil

The usage of a quick-evaporating solvent such as I recommended is the quickest way to achieve your goal commensurate with the least amount of waiting time. True enough there might be a very slight 'drying' effect in the short term, but this will be offset to some degree by the dissolved waxes from the compound stick and also (I trust) that one uses only the very slightest amount of solvent necessary to achieve the result of painting on a surface of paste without - and I cannot stress this point enough - without saturating the leather with solvent.

Of course, you must make your own decisions as regards health concerns and the appropriateness of this possible approach.

- Ignatz

[Lupin]

Thanks guys,

After much reading on this web site, I realized that my Norton 4000/8000 needs to be flattened. I will be getting a DMT 8" stone to lap my stone.

I got some naphtha and made some Chromium Oxide liquid. The stick was quite hard so a knife was used to grate small chips off the stick into a small container with naphtha. after 2-3 minutes of mixing and crushing the material...everything started to blend quite nicely with no clumps. I then proceeded to apply some of this liquid to a leather strap. A few coats later, I have a nice pasted strop which cost next to nothing.

I took out a razor and had a go at the pasted strop.... wow.It was shaving sharp right off the pasted strop. I will try to take some pictures of a previous attempt at a pasted strop to show everyone what should not be done.... lol

After a thorough cleaning and a go on a new dovo strop, my old razor shaves wonderfully.

I am waiting for Tony M. to make some new 4 sided paddle, will the 0.25 micron paste get the razor much sharper? The razor easily passes the hanging hair test as is... what would the .25 micron paste do for me?

Thanks again

Éric