Hi I have made myself a strop with mdf and leather glued to it. I'm using autosol at the moment which I find does the job, what I want to know is how often should I load the strop with autosol, and does the green chromium compound work any better ?.Thanks.
Strops
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I've recently moved from a liquid type polishing compound to green menzerna, and find it much more efficient at producing a shaving sharp edge. I just rub a bit on every use.
I've been wood carving for about 15 years or so. "Carving sharp" is superior to "shaving sharp."
I make strops out of leather, denim from old blue jeans and just about any card stock inside faces from cereal and crisp boxes.
Doesn't matter very much, as long as it's quite smooth.
I can't comment on Autosol. Never used it. But also, never read a negative comment about it's performance, either.
All along, I've used Chromium Oxide (green). . . CrOx. Here, it's usually laced with Aluminum Oxide (AlOx) which is white, it disappears in the CrOx except for the lumps
when they don't mix it well! No big deal. I have straight white AlOx on denim strops.
I scribble the CrOx on the card stock strops and when they are all black, I start over with a new one.
3" x 5" filing cards wrapped around mandrels are good for all my Pacific Northwest style crooked carving knives.
On leather, I use the serrated corner of a small mill file to gently rake off the blackened CrOx and recharge the strop.
How often depends on how much use it gets. I need to see the black trail of metal particles to understand the effect I'm getting.
I don't like leather as it goes soft over time. It rebounds at the passing edge of a tool and rounds off the bevels.
Crappy cheap box card stock is superior.
I make strops out of leather, denim from old blue jeans and just about any card stock inside faces from cereal and crisp boxes.
Doesn't matter very much, as long as it's quite smooth.
I can't comment on Autosol. Never used it. But also, never read a negative comment about it's performance, either.
All along, I've used Chromium Oxide (green). . . CrOx. Here, it's usually laced with Aluminum Oxide (AlOx) which is white, it disappears in the CrOx except for the lumps
when they don't mix it well! No big deal. I have straight white AlOx on denim strops.
I scribble the CrOx on the card stock strops and when they are all black, I start over with a new one.
3" x 5" filing cards wrapped around mandrels are good for all my Pacific Northwest style crooked carving knives.
On leather, I use the serrated corner of a small mill file to gently rake off the blackened CrOx and recharge the strop.
How often depends on how much use it gets. I need to see the black trail of metal particles to understand the effect I'm getting.
I don't like leather as it goes soft over time. It rebounds at the passing edge of a tool and rounds off the bevels.
Crappy cheap box card stock is superior.
CrOx is a green color, mixed into some sort of waxy carrier, no more than a gigantic crayon. The faster you scribble, the more friction, the more comes off.
CrOx in this app is about 0.5 micron nominal particle size while the AlOx is probably 0.25 micron. I'm less and less convinced that it really matters.
I do believe that the waxy carrier stuff does soften a hard leather strop. I bought a really nice leather strop and I'll say it lasted 10 years.
OTOH, the box card is always fresh, economical and always hard. I just hold it in place with whatever sticky tape is at hand.
There's some dogma that claims you have to glue it down. No. It isn't absolutely flat. The random imperfections tend to
equalize eachother in the honing process. I see glassy cuts in red and yellow cedar, that's all I ever wanted.
For all my Pacific Northwest style carving tools, the adzes and the crooked knives, I can move the sharpening material over a stationary edge.
You should get used to this to maintain a good spoon carving knife such as the blades that Dave Budd makes.
CrOx in this app is about 0.5 micron nominal particle size while the AlOx is probably 0.25 micron. I'm less and less convinced that it really matters.
I do believe that the waxy carrier stuff does soften a hard leather strop. I bought a really nice leather strop and I'll say it lasted 10 years.
OTOH, the box card is always fresh, economical and always hard. I just hold it in place with whatever sticky tape is at hand.
There's some dogma that claims you have to glue it down. No. It isn't absolutely flat. The random imperfections tend to
equalize eachother in the honing process. I see glassy cuts in red and yellow cedar, that's all I ever wanted.
For all my Pacific Northwest style carving tools, the adzes and the crooked knives, I can move the sharpening material over a stationary edge.
You should get used to this to maintain a good spoon carving knife such as the blades that Dave Budd makes.
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