Cutting Bark River compound sticks

[mrdeus]

Anyone have a tip for easily cutting off a piece of a stick of Bark River white stropping compound?

I gave a small piece of white and black compound to a friend a long time ago and I remember it was a hassle to cut a piece off.

I suppose heating it up would help?

 

[Kai Winters]

hack saw...

 

[mrdeus]

hack saw...

I think that's what I used the last time, but it felt like I was ruining the saw. I guess I could use the same blade as last time.

 

[HeavyHanded]

You can melt some off into a form made from aluminum foil or even paper. A hot knife can work, but is pretty messy.

 

[fervens]

One of those wire cheese cutters our egg slicers would probably work a well

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Haven't tried it, but you might be able to just split off a piece using a cold chisel & hammer/mallet. Might even work with a thinner device, like a putty knife or scraper blade, used with a mallet. Being that the sticks are just 'loose' grit held together with wax/stearin-type compound, I'd think they'd split fairly easily, like a coarse-grained piece of stone or masonry. Might even be able to 'notch' or 'score' the piece, to get it to break along a defined plane, somewhat like bricklayers or stonecutters might do.

I've got one stick of compound from Sears, which was already broken in half when I opened the tube; likely got dropped on the floor at some point.


David

 

[mrdeus]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll give it a go in a day or two.

 

[mrdeus]

This is what I ended up doing. Worked very well.

I notched it slightly and then put it on my tool box and hit the part sticking out with a hammer. So, I went with Obsessed With Edges' suggestion. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

This is what I ended up doing. Worked very well.

I notched it slightly and then put it on my tool box and hit the part sticking out with a hammer. So, I went with Obsessed With Edges' suggestion. Thanks for all the replies.

:thumbup:
Glad to see that worked for you. I'd recently been using a masonry chisel and hammer to chip away at some mortar & concrete underneath a door threshold (modified to accomodate a new storm door), so the idea was still fresh in my memory. Don't know if it would've occurred to me otherwise, as I don't do such things that often.


David