Stropping - Compounds?

[C_Claycomb]

Pretty much agree with all that Bobson Valley says.

My view is not to waste high quality leather belts for knife stropping, unless you absolutely want to. A really thin bit of suede leather or similar glued to a bit of flat board will work just fine. Cardboard too works well, but I like the slight "give" softness of thin leather. Wood working tools go better on a hard, dead flat lapping/honing surface. More general use knives work fine on a more yielding surface, and that softness makes it easier to hone quickly.

I have successfully used automotive cutting compound, used for rubbing back car paint, as a stropping compound. Babbit metal is meant to work too, although I don't fancy it myself. The paste products like Autosol and Tormek seem to work better for home use, they don't clog the strop so much, or get burnished, like the wax bars, but they are all but impossible to use in the field unless you carry the whole original tube. I have yet to find a way to carry a little Autosol/Tormek paste in my camping kit where it will not dry out, and won't bind up the thread of the container it is in. Wax bar scores high for field convenience, even if it does clog and get burnished on the leather surface.

 

[Robson Valley]

Gcckoka: Find a business that sells metal polishes (refinishing cars & trucks?) They are really very fine abrasives and ideal for honing.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Klenchblaize: One sure way to find out as your proof will be in service application!

Indeed. The stuff is amazing (particularly the Green) and is great too for polishing both blade and scales!

Cheers

K

 

[dewi]

I've been using jeweller's rouge... not sure if its the best to use, but its working.

 

[Dreadhead]

Dreadhead: It's the waxy carrier in the bar that makes it so solid. My shop is cold (50-60F) when I open up on winter days. I put my bar in my shirt pocket to warm it up, to soften the wax. You could do no wrong with 30C/90F water and your honing cpd bar in a plastic bag for a warm-up. Waxes, even petroleum waxes, commonly melt at about 60C/150F.

Thanks I heated the bar up a bit today and made two strops, one with leather and one with card both worked a treat. Managed to put a decent edge on my knife for the first time in years

 

[kristophish]

I really rate the flexcut gold

 

[Nomad]

Had a go at stropping my Woody clone and TBS Boar EDC. I used the green and pink bars. Both came up sharper than they were before hand (a little very light use each since last stropped). With the Woody, I tried my usual paper test first, which is to use a Rizla, folded, and cut into the fold downwards at an angle. Because the cig paper is structurally very light, it often gives out before there's much of a cut. Before stropping, the blade got in a bit and then the paper started to tear. After stropping, it sliced through much better (the paper tends to bend away once you get near to the other side). The boar cut the same, although I didn't try it before stropping.

Both knives are much sharper than I've ever had them before. I've always reckoned using a cig paper was a demanding test because it flexes and tears so easily, but this has shown me that a small lack of sharpness was still a factor in what I was observing.

I tried the rouge on the Woody after the green/pink, but again couldn't really see much difference. Methinks I'll stick with the green and pink for the compact field kit. I guess I need to sacrifice a junior hacksaw blade to cut a smaller block off each...

 

[Robson Valley]

Good. See? They all work just fine. Note the particle sizes that I listed in Post#11. Don't make the mistake of coming off a stone that's too coarse and
going to a honing compound that's too fine, you'll be at it for hours and wonder why so little improvement.

Your last stone/plate/sandpaper ought to be at least 1k, or 1.5k paper. 2k - 4k is even better. Then hone with something like green CrOx/AlOx.

Now you all are ready to wrap abrasives around metal tubing and tackle the sharpening and honing of any brand of crooked/spoon knife.

 

[NoName]

I only started using polishing paste the last 4 years https://www.dictum.com/en/sharpenin...6/polishing-paste-fine?elioOrdernumber=705266
I appy them to a hardboard (scandi knives) or leather strop (axes, hunting or kitchen knives)
what a difference! I thought my knives were sharp, actually they were, but with stropping paste as the Fine (link above) paper cutting test become like a invisible paper cutting feel
it removes micro burrs even after great and fine stones as Coticule Ardennes (Belgian whetstone) or Honyama quary stone.
I found out the pastes work really especially nice with high carbon steel

https://www.dictum.com/en/sharpenin...1303/quarry-stones-honyama?ffRefKey=UPVyTE7fw
https://www.dictum.com/en/sharpenin...one-block-150-x-40-x-20-mm?ffRefKey=TwZOunoJi

 

[Robson Valley]

For all my wood carving knives, gouges and adzes, the final honing step is the difference between an edge which is acceptably sharp and an edge which is "carving sharp."
One push in the wood is my test of result.

The odd part is that I can come off 1K grit, 1.5k grit or 4k grit, the honing is essential.
So for the crooked knives and the adzes, I use 1500 grit paper then hone to get useful edges.
The water stones are all the wrong shapes for all the different sweeps.

 

[Hoodoo]

I really rate the flexcut gold

I like that compound as well. My favorite, though is Rich Notto's White Gold. It does the two things I want in a stropping compound. It cuts well and it leaves a highly polished surface. It also applies smoothly. I switched from Lee Valley green about 10 years ago and never looked back.

Compounds vary a lot so color is not necessarily a reliable indicator. For me a good stropping compound will turn gray on the first stroke, meaning that it is doing a good job of removing metal.

 

[Robson Valley]

I read lots of good things about Flexcut Gold. Pick one, any one, they all work.

Colors from white through reds and browns help to identify the chemistry of the abrasive oxide (aluminum, copper and iron.) Wierd things like pink and blue and purple are added dyes for identification.
However, Chromium II Oxide is green. Nothing added. In fact, if you were really hard up, go to an art store and buy a small tube of student-grade chrome green oil paint.
Same as a bar but oil, not wax.

 

[Nomad]

I'd be cautious of using oil paint. Although it might have the same stuff inside as the pigment, it is designed to dry to a flexible, waterproof film with a plasticy consistency. The drying times can vary from a couple of weeks to several months, depending mainly on how thick the paint is, although the chemical make-up of a particular tube is also a factor.

I would have thought that, once dry, the particles that make up the pigment would be harder to reach since they are embedded in the flexible film. Only those at the surface of the dried paint would touch the blade being stropped. Unless I'm missing something, with a paste, the particles within it are accessbile because the paste is displaced during stropping. Probably fine on a temporary or disposable strop, but I'm not sure I'd want to put it on a nice, expensive leather one.

I'm assuming here that the 'proper' stropping pastes reactivate and become pasty again when fresh paste is applied. With oil paint, that won't happen - the dried paint becomes the top surface of the substrate that the new paint goes onto (were it otherwise, the glazing technique in oil painting wouldn't work), which means that any texture or absorption from the substrate is lost.

 

[Robson Valley]

Sorry: my sole point was that the CrOx in the paint is every bit as good for honing as the CrOx in the bar.
The low quality artist's paint can be used in a pinch and I'd never leave any on either the gouge or any strop worth lookng after.

The usual bars of CrOx here are commonly laced with the finer AlOx. Being white, I don't notice it on the strop.
My original piece is about 20 years old, it began about the size of my fist.

When I used a leather strop, it was regularly cleaned by raking and fresh compound applied.
Now I use several sorts of heavy card which I throw away when they are quite black with the finely divided metal particles.