Stropping compound.

[Quixoticgeek]

I bought a lump of blue stropping compound from Mr Budd back at the bushmoot. I've just tried using it for the first time on my home made strop (lump of leather attached to piece of wood). Only I can't seem to get it to cover the strop the way I had expected it to. It's rather solid and my attempt rub it on the leather isn't doing anything.

Any ideas?

J

 

[Hoodoo]

Try warming it or the strop with a hair drier.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

I don't have a hair dryer (despite my hair being 30" long recently). But I'll try warming it up a little.

Cheers

J

 

[Buckshot]

Just rub it on like a crayon
I find the stropping action helps to spread the compound around a fair bit if it's a little uneven

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Just rub it on like a crayon
I find the stropping action helps to spread the compound around a fair bit if it's a little uneven

That's what I was doing. And it hasn't worked. All I get is a couple of small streaks, Not enough to cover the whole strop, and the action of the knife actually causes some to come off.

J

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Can you post up a pic of your strop.

 

[Hoodoo]

You might also try putting it in a closed container with some water on the bottom to hydrate it. Just make sure the compound is not in the water. Some compounds will dry out, especially if the wax content is low.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

That's it after I've tried rubbing it on the strop.

J

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Try scraping the compound off the strop then with the spine of your knife give it a good old scrape to rough it up. This should give the compound something to bite onto.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

The light section is wherever I have scraped mine. I have to do this from time to time to remove the glazing. This is Blue Starkie compound that I got from Longstrider and one of his strops.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Mesquite]

Did you fix the leather rough side down?

If you did then that's your problem as the stropping compound is hard to apply and lifts very easily off of the smooth side.

Try making another strop with the rough side up and you'll probably see the difference

 

[Robson Valley]

Most bar castings of honing compounds are suspended in some sort of very hard petroleum wax. Must be warmed up (body heat) to soften for good application.
I was taught to clean a leather strop with the corner of a 6" file, GENTLY, as a rake. Roughens an overly smooth surface too.
I Use box card and office filing cards now. Always fresh & clean as I need them.

After 15 years of wood carving, that waxy stuff softened my leather strop too much so I never use it any more.

 

[nephilim]

Warm it under your armpit. Then it will spread a fair bit better.

 

[MarkinLondon]

I wave my strop over the stove for a moment before rubbing Starky Blue on it. The stove warms the strop up enough to let the Blue melt on.

 

[Robson Valley]

My shirt pocket, under my heavy canvas carving apron, works for the CrOx/AlOx bars that Lee Valley sells.
As noted, the heavy waxy carrier gets really hard at anything less than 25C. Predictably, it melts at 60C or so
like other waxes. Fast rubbing can sometimes create enough friction for warming. Another reason why the cardboard
and office file cards are effective strops.

 

[Dave Budd]

I can't really add anything to what has been suggested. The compound will go on better if warm, but it's not as bad as some that I've used for that. The rough side of the leather is best and you'll find that once a bit of compound has built up through use, then it will go on much more evenly and easily.

I've tried oiling the strop with other compounds that were too dry and it helped (thin oil, but this leaves a smeared surface not the clean mirror people like). I can't say which I prefer to the action of it's working, but once oiled then the strop can't go back to dry

Don't forget though that you don't need to cover the whole thing, as long as there is some paste on the strop then it will still work