Harbor Freight Green and Black

M

MarkPinTx

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Aug 21, 2003
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I have trouble finding compounds locally now that the real hardware stores are gone. I saw some green and black compounds at harbor freight.


Anyone have experience with these? Reasonable substitutes for what bark river sells as green and black?
 
I use the HF black, and it is quite coarse. Pain in the ass to apply to leather though, because it is a really hard and thick wax. I tried putting on a decently even coat then melting it in with a heat gun but it wound up just starting to flake off. I have also tried heating it in the oven before to no avail.

It works, but it is not very fun to use.
 
HF green is ok. Super cheap and it works better than bare cardboard or bare leather. But it's not good compound for this purpose. I used it for a while and I got ok results. It's better than nothing. I think a hair dryer helped me get it soft enough to apply a little better. Good compound is way softer and probably has more closely controlled abrasive content.

Brian.
 
Great thanks for the insight. Buying compound online kind of irks me because of the shipping. Like buying pellets, so heavy the shipping is pretty high. Sears used to have this kind of thing in spades. Grrr.
 
I believe HeavyHands gets flex-cut gold from Sears and it is decent. Though not as fine as the green chromium oxide. It is still good. Perhaps around 800 grit. DM
 
David Martin said:
I believe HeavyHands gets flex-cut gold from Sears and it is decent. Though not as fine as the green chromium oxide. It is still good. Perhaps around 800 grit. DM
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I'm pretty sure I've seen it at Woodcraft stores as well, if you happen to have one in the area (their web site shows a store in the Dallas/Addison area).


David
 
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These numbers may be helpful?

Bark River Knife 3 bar compound kit. Includes: black (3,000 grit), green (6,000 grit) and white (12,000 grit) sharpening/buffing compound. Proudly made in the USA for Bark River Knives.
 
You can use a small amount of mineral oil to help apply hard block compounds to leather etc - the key is to use a small amount. Too much oil will string out the wax (stearin) binder and the compound won't bite on the leather very well.

I doubt the HF compounds are anywhere near as nice as the better compounds. You can get Flexcut Gold and Formax green CrO at Woodcraft. The price of shipping might be negligible over time - a bar of either used for hand stropping will last a lifetime. Sears Craftsman used to make a nice black and white, but they switched to a different supplier and now their black is still really good, the stainless compound is not so good. Ryobi black and white are good quality. You can make compound using a lot of different abrasives by making a slurry with the abrasive and some mineral oil - add a little canning wax (paraffin) to thicken it up. There are a ton of variables going into how a stropping abrasive works, it helps to know that the abrasive content is somewhat consistent and of higher purity. Not sure I'd throw any $ for the HF stuff.
 
I'm not very experienced with compounds; I just know what I've tried, which isn't much. :)

That said, I think Strop Man's compounds are a good value. You get a bar about the size of your thumb (smaller diameter) for something like $6, and additional bars are $2 each. So three bars (of your choice of color) for $10. They apply nice and smoothly and seem to be good quality. Again, I'm not all that experienced with compound, but I like how they apply and they seem to do the job well. His Black compound is the only black I've used and it's surprising in it's ability to restore an edge. Way more power than I thought a strop with compound could work on a blade.

Brian.
 
Haha the very best compound I've used happens to be green HF. It came in a little tub in a kit of Dremel bits so it could very well be completely different than the stuff that comes in their bars.

All I know for sure is that it puts a mirror polish on carbon blades.

Anyone tried conditioning their leather strops with petroleum jelly? I've seen woodworkers do it, and have considered doing it but haven't tried it yet. I know Worksharp recommends it on their power strop. Seems like it might help for spreading compound. Right now I just use heat.
 
Strigamort said:
Haha the very best compound I've used happens to be green HF. It came in a little tub in a kit of Dremel bits so it could very well be completely different than the stuff that comes in their bars.

All I know for sure is that it puts a mirror polish on carbon blades.

Anyone tried conditioning their leather strops with petroleum jelly? I've seen woodworkers do it, and have considered doing it but haven't tried it yet. I know Worksharp recommends it on their power strop. Seems like it might help for spreading compound. Right now I just use heat.
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Thank goodness someone that has actually used the stuff was able to respond!

I've used vaseline before on a hand strop, but feel I have more control with mineral oil. The residual oil left behind from the vaseline will soften most compound binders and should help spreading the tougher blocks.
 
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