Strop Paste - cheaper alternatives?

[Meliphicent]

Hey guys, I'm looking to make a few balsa wood strops with a few grades of paste. I've started looking around for the paste and can only find the Dovo stuff online here in Melbourne. It's $18ish per tube, but I've seen posts here and there where people say they found similar products elsewhere like arts supply stores?
I'm wondering if there are any common names that strop pastes go by, or if there are other products that I could look for?

 

[rickboone1]

Art supply stores may have Chromium Oxide.

You can also look at SRD for Diamond Spray. And, you can usually find people that will sell small packets of it for cheap.

 

[wazazzle]

I've read some of the cheaper chrome oxide has different or inconsistent micron measurements. Most of use want .5 micron, but some are 1micron.. others even more. Imo i think the cheapest and most cost effective it to go with the powder chrome-oxide offered by "handamerican.com". It's 100% pure and you can either apply it dry or wet using your own soluble mix like mineral oil. Point is it has a higher count of the stuff vs pre-mixed. I think handamerican is having website server problems, but there's a guy on fleebay "starshavingsupplies" whose now a vendor for them. Item number 120571378297

Hope this helps

 

[Meliphicent]

Fantastic, that was very helpful. Searching the handamerican site using google reveals the links still work they just aren't advertised on the main page. Looks like I'll have to buy up a decent sized batch and be one of the guys offering decants.

Thanks to both of you