Home alternative to buffing compound.

[Asa Samuel]

Hi, I usually use an old leather belt for stropping but having to do hundreds of strokes is getting tiring!

I know you can add a mild buffing compound to speed up the process but I don't have any and I was wondering if there are any items I might find in the home that would do the same job?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Asa.

 

[Shewie]

I've heard folk mention toothpaste before but I've never tried myself.

 

[phill_ue]

Aye, it is supposed to work, you may also have a polishing compound if you have a dremel with the little felt wheels. That will work. Any polishing material such as autosol or braso may make a difference. You could use incredibly fine/worn emery cloth for sharpening/polishing too.

 

[Robbi]

solvol autosol is brill for this

 

[g4ghb]

I've used both toothpaste and t-cut

both work fine but the t-cut is not so minty fresh!

 

[alecf]

When i tried toothpaste, I was left with a white gunk mixed with leather dust stuck all over the blade and it was a pain to clean...

 

[MrEd]

try halfords rubbing compound, its what i used to rub down between layers of paint when painting a car and its quite a fine grit

its quite quick so dont go mad, but its less gritty than toothpaste. another thing to use would be neutral 'T' cut

 

[JonathanD]

Toothpaste will work, but it will also wreck the leather over a short period of time. Try toothpase on a newspaper folded in half lengthways. That'll work.

 

[Toddy]

Mousemat, or cardboard from a cereal box and Astonish paste........meant for scrubbing baked on stuff of stainless steel pots and cookers It comes in a wee tub and costs about a pound.
Have a look under the kitchen sink, your Mum might well already have some.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[MartiniDave]

I think you'd be OK with househols scouring powder, like Alax for example, but you may want to mix in a SMALL amount of mineral (Baby) oil to make a paste.

Dave

 

[Dave Budd]

buffing compound is just an abrasive suspended in a fluid of plastic matrix, so think about what you have in the home.

toothpaste
chocolate
flour
wood ash
metal polish (brasso, autosol)
paint polishy stuff (t-cut, etc)
cardboard

from trying the above all work but I'm sure there must be more

 

[Ogri the trog]

Hi, I usually use an old leather belt for stropping but having to do hundreds of strokes is getting tiring!

I know you can add a mild buffing compound to speed up the process but I don't have any and I was wondering if there are any items I might find in the home that would do the same job?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Asa.

Asa Samuel,
The whole idea is that, as the abrasive becomes finer, it takes longer to achieve the best finish possible with that grade. When you change to the next finer grade, its going to take longer again.

The faster working alternative is to sharpen on stones every time but the price you pay is in removing so much more metal from the blade that you'll wear it out much more quickly.

Stropping is a very gentle process and requires time as an investment, the payback is the least material removed from the blade, making your knife last longer.

There are ways of making the process more efficient, but only to a point.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[rik_uk3]

Toothpaste is really good for cleaning up aluminium.

 

[Fredcompanybushcraft]

I sharpened my SAK roughly on some emery cloth, then turned the cloth over and used toothpaste on that side.

 

[slammer187]

Brasso is common in most households and does a brilliant job if you don't care about having to impregnate your strop with it but if you want the best alternative then head down to a local motor stove like Halfords and look for metal polish (it's usually used for polishing rims and chrome) and pick up the putty type stuff in the tub that rubs on just like normal compound...that works a treat!