Just wondering what you would recommend as the best compound (and rough cost) to use when stropping your knife.
Strop stuff
- Thread starter Puddock
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i personally love the blue sharpi strop paste, i also use the bark river black and green, and to finish autosol.
hope that helps mate.
hope that helps mate.
Can't beat Warthogs offer but I use Autosol... about £4 from Halfords and a tube will last years.
i use flexcut gold, its brilliant, and my knives are sharper than a razor blade would ever need to be.
old leather belt and some spit 
grandpa would be proud!
try out warthogs and see how things work, then try out the mroe premium brands later on if you fancy a change.
grandpa would be proud!
try out warthogs and see how things work, then try out the mroe premium brands later on if you fancy a change.
Autosol Metal Polish, I've tried other brands but they honestly aren't as good. One hell of an edge.
Richard
Richard
I use the screwfix stuff... and while very good, looking like a chunk I was sent with a strop will outlive me, I just cant quite get a hair popping edge on A2 steel.
Its sharp, very, but I'm considering autosol if it really is that good for a final finish?
al.
Its sharp, very, but I'm considering autosol if it really is that good for a final finish?
al.
I'l second that, bought a pack about 6 years ago and still got about 80% of it. Get some autosol too though for putting the final scary sharp polished edge on the blade
Hmm, no idea I'm afraid. Sharpening does seem to be a bit of an art as well as a science, doesn't it? I can get my knives and wood carving tools up to what I think is pretty well razor sharp with the Screwfix green stuff. Are you taking care not to rock the edge during stropping, so that you aren't stropping at a higher (and blunter) angle?
Cheers
i use flitz metal polish, bought a box of it on ebay a while ago and got loads in the pack, a big tube a small tube and a bottle or something like that. it works great for stropping and also works well for cleaning and polishing blades and gaurds.
I have no problems stropping, convex sharpening... I can oddly get my axe hair popping sharp, but not the A2.
Everyone seems very impressed with the autosol as a finisher, so I guess I'll give it a go!
Cheers, al.
Hmmm, sounds like sharpening itself isn't the problem - maybe it's the steel.
I'm sure that I've read somewhere (probably a woodworking forum) that A2 is a tougher steel than, say, O1 at the same hardness. Axminster Power Tools' catalogue also indicates that A2 blades are usually a touch harder than O1 blades from the same manufacturer (have a look at Lie-Neilson chisels). This means that spending say 2 minutes on a stone may be long enough for O1, but might not be long enough for A2. Are you raising a burr edge on the A2? What abrasives are you using, and do you have another choice available? I usually use wet & dry for the vast majority of my sharpening, but I break out the waterstones if I come across something that the wet & dry won't he deal with.
Good luck!
I'm sure that I've read somewhere (probably a woodworking forum) that A2 is a tougher steel than, say, O1 at the same hardness. Axminster Power Tools' catalogue also indicates that A2 blades are usually a touch harder than O1 blades from the same manufacturer (have a look at Lie-Neilson chisels). This means that spending say 2 minutes on a stone may be long enough for O1, but might not be long enough for A2. Are you raising a burr edge on the A2? What abrasives are you using, and do you have another choice available? I usually use wet & dry for the vast majority of my sharpening, but I break out the waterstones if I come across something that the wet & dry won't he deal with.
Good luck!
For a stainless blade I use a white compound called "Blizzard". Can't remember where I got it or how much it cost because, the piece I have has lasted me for years. You could try making your own.
Z
Z
Thanks Ian... If I'm going to sharpen from scratch, I normall use W+D 1500, 2000, 2500 and it seems to take it to a fantastic edge. Routine stropping though just never seems to take it quite back to the edge it had from a decent resharpen.
It's not even heavily used to warrant going back to the paper. I think I just need a finer polishing compound to take is to shaving sharp. Burr edge wise, it never seems to really raise much, I normally start from 30 strops down to 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 3 and then 10 each way.
Maybe it is just the steel... Its sharper than I would ever need as-is, its just nice to get the edge as smooth as possible.
Cheers, al.
I mostly use solvol polish (aluminium oxide) and it works consistently well on the tormek wheel and other flat board strops. But recently I have started to use rouge bar on a fresh leather strop and it gives a better edge, I feel, than the autosol does.....it seems a bit more agressive.
I used to use cheaper compounds, but I got sucked into obsessive sharpening and I now only use the best compounds available.
I only use Hand American and Ken Schwartz compounds. I finish up to 0.125µ
I only use Hand American and Ken Schwartz compounds. I finish up to 0.125µ
