With straights, I much prefer the finish from chromium oxide to ferric oxide. The crox gives smooth and keen results but the feox, although finer, gives an edge which to me seems harsh and brittle.
I've also been stropping proprietary Rolls razor, Wilkinson Empire and GEM SE blades on their appropriate automatic stroppers with their appropriate strops, and with them the pastes behave differently.
In this case the crox seems too harsh and it's the feox which gives a nice polish.
Any suggestions why the pastes are giving such different results for straights and SEs?
Is it simply because with the straights the paste is on balsa, whereas with the SEs its on leather so has more give, like the damp paper smoothing lapping film edges?
This is probably contributory, but doesn't explain why the SE blades don't like chromium oxide.
What do you think?
I've also been stropping proprietary Rolls razor, Wilkinson Empire and GEM SE blades on their appropriate automatic stroppers with their appropriate strops, and with them the pastes behave differently.
In this case the crox seems too harsh and it's the feox which gives a nice polish.
Any suggestions why the pastes are giving such different results for straights and SEs?
Is it simply because with the straights the paste is on balsa, whereas with the SEs its on leather so has more give, like the damp paper smoothing lapping film edges?
This is probably contributory, but doesn't explain why the SE blades don't like chromium oxide.
What do you think?