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BJE

BJE

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I am wanting to make a flat stroping board by glueing an old leather belt to a flat board, and I don't know wich side goes up (rough or smooth), and is it ok to use a piece of belt that has a design burned in it, or will it not work well? Also, will baking soda work as a paste? How about any other household abrasives, or does a dry belt work ok?
P.S. Any advice on what common adhesive to use to glue a piece of leather to a piece of plywood?
 
I would use the rough side, just because the other side has the pattern burned into it, leaving an uneven surface. Otherwise, using the smooth side would work. You can get the green compund at hardware stores, or check out www.handamerican.com or other online shops for choices in abrasives.
 
Leather by itself does little to modern cutlery steels which are very hard and abrasion resistant, even many of the metal polishing compounds don't work.
Chromium oxide based ones (green) work well for most of the low alloy steels, boron carbide or diamond powder work well on any steel. Any hardware store will have blocks of the chromium oxide based compound, usually called a buffing compound. Simple paper or cardboard will also provide a perfectly fine media to load with a honing abrasive and can be easily glued to a piece of wood. The rougher side of leather is usually used to hold a more coarse compound, if you use the side with the design, the design won't have any significant effect aside from being a place where the compound will build up.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
Leather by itself does little to modern cutlery steels which are very hard and abrasion resistant, even many of the metal polishing compounds don't work.
Chromium oxide based ones (green) work well for most of the low alloy steels, boron carbide or diamond powder work well on any steel. Any hardware store will have blocks of the chromium oxide based compound, usually called a buffing compound. Simple paper or cardboard will also provide a perfectly fine media to load with a honing abrasive and can be easily glued to a piece of wood. The rougher side of leather is usually used to hold a more coarse compound, if you use the side with the design, the design won't have any significant effect aside from being a place where the compound will build up.

-Cliff
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Thanks for the advice, I think I will try cardboard with a polishing paste I have. How can I tell if it has a finer grit than my extra fine Lansky stone or other very fine stone? Would you recomend the same paste for a Straight Razor? Would it help if I used a leather belt without paste after the charged cardboard? I don't have the paste with me right now, but I got it for a buffing wheel on a bench grinder, it came in a tube and is like a rough crayon.
 
BJE said:
How can I tell if it has a finer grit than my extra fine Lansky stone or other very fine stone?
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Unless you have a way to check the abrasive under high magnification, you just use it and check the scratch pattern or how it effects the edge.

Would you recomend the same paste for a Straight Razor?
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Straight razors generally don't need the more exotic compounds like boron carbide or diamond paste and can be honed fine on the common 0.5 micron chromium/aluminum oxide bars.

Would it help if I used a leather belt without paste after the charged cardboard?
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Generally no.

I don't have the paste with me right now, but I got it for a buffing wheel on a bench grinder, it came in a tube and is like a rough crayon.
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There are a bunch of such compounds, many of them are made for polishing soft metals like silver or brass and won't do much to hardened cutlery. There is no harm in trying it, it can't damage the edge, if it is too soft the edge will just ignore it.

-Cliff
 
brown tripoli is for soft materials, doubt it will do anything to your cutting edge.
 
Sounds like Tripoli rouge which typically has varying sizes of silicon dioxide (glass/quartz/novaculite) as its abrasive. Can work well, but will be slow on the modern stainless steels.

You may want to try Flexcut Gold, a blend of aluminum oxide and titanium oxide abrasives in a yellow compound or 'green buffing compound' from www.buffingunlimited.com (0.5 micron chromium oxide/aluminum oxide blend - go with a smaller size as the 3 pound bar is way too much).

I've been getting good results using 3M 1 micron aluminum oxide polishing paper glue-sticked to a piece of glass. You can get that at www.ottofrei.com or the mylar sharpening film version (complete with its own adhesive backing) from www.toolsforworkingwood.com The polishing cloths, films, and tapes cost more, but they're relatively cleaner and easier to clean.
 
You ever use any 2.5 micron silicon carbide paste, Thom? For no good reason, I want to reduce micron size by ~half~ for each step of my sharpening gear. From 120 diamond, to 53 SiC, to 25 diamond again, to 12 & 6 on the sharpmaker, so the 2.5 would fit in before the .5 Cro. Though I'd not bother with anything between the 2.5 and .5. Maybe. Why the heck I would need it...
 
So what color do you recomend (that can be found at a local hardware store) for superscarysharp results for straight razors?
 
green is probably the most used, chromium oxide. That stuff will maybe be 3, 3.5 micron in those bars.
 
hardheart said:
You ever use any 2.5 micron silicon carbide paste, Thom?
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I've used the two opposite extremes: 2.5 micron SiC powder and 2.5 micron SiC paper. It's good stuff and leaves a clean finish on many steels (S30V, VG10, M2, 5160, and S7 that I know of).
 
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