Houshold Stropping Compound

[HeavyHanded]

I haven't tried it yet, but every reference I can find describes billiard chalk as being silica and corundum along with color and a small amount of binder. Sounds perfect...

 

[Rey HRH]

Had a Navy Warrant Officer tell me about the time they were polishing a shaft bearing surface. They were down to using talc powder.
I don't know where that stands in micron size.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I haven't tried it yet, but every reference I can find describes billiard chalk as being silica and corundum along with color and a small amount of binder. Sounds perfect...

I seem to recall your mention of that some time back. With that in mind at the time, I tried it with some old billiard chalk I acquired with a pool cue back in the early '80s, and found it to be disappointing. Whatever the mineral makeup of it, the chalk seemed too coarse and irregular to leave the edge in good shape; essentially as if I'd used a pinch of fine dirt from the ground (I've tried that too; with one lucky exception, I've usually had the same results, with it tending to 'beat up' a fine edge more than refining it). For cleaning up really rough burrs on a very coarsely sharpened edge, it might do. But for any real 'refinement' of a medium-to-finely finished edge, it seemed to leave it in worse shape than before I started, taking an edge from shaving sharpness (finished by other means) to not shaving at all. Doesn't seem hard enough to cut steel cleanly, so it sort of dings it up instead. This is consistent with most of the other natural silica-based 'grit' I've tried, such as fine dirt/dust/silt/sand collected from the ground.

I don't know if more recent billiard chalk is different in composition or grit size/uniformity, but that 30+ year-old stuff left me wanting for better.


David

 

[orezona]

What about baking powder instead (or after) baking soda?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

What about baking powder instead (or after) baking soda?

Much too soft to cut steel. Some 'abrasive' grits can function basically to knock loose bits of weakened steel (burrs, in other words) from an edge. If an edge is already very thin & refined, sometimes that's enough to produce a noticeable change in sharpness, in removing the fine burrs. But beyond that, they won't be able to actually cut the 'good' hard steel after the burrs are gone. This is true of 'polishes' like talc, baking soda/powder, most silica (including the 'hydrated silica' usually found in toothpastes), and sometimes compound known as 'jewelers rouge' (red iron oxide, a.k.a. 'ferric oxide'), because it won't be hard enough to actually cut most modern steels. They can still have a burnishing effect which 'shines' the surface a bit, but won't really be able to abrade, therefore thin, an edge.

For a so-called 'household' product which is able to really do some true polishing (of steel) by abrasion, look for metal polishes which contain aluminum oxide (such as Mother's Mag, or Flitz/Simichrome/Maas/etc). Most of the rest, like toothpaste, baking soda, talc (literally at the bottom of the Mohs scale of hardness) will likely be a disappointment, UNLESS the edge is already very refined, with just some 'cleaning up' of edge debris, like burrs or other junk left stuck on the edge by the sharpening process, making the only difference. If that's the case, then simply 'stropping' the edge on your jeans, or bare leather or paper or smooth wood, will likely accomplish the same thing.

A simple test to see if an 'improvised stropping compound' is actually sharpening (abrading) a knife edge or not, is to apply the compound to a piece of clean, white paper and strop on that (on a hard backing). If you can see dark streaks of metal being left on the paper, it's abrading the steel and may have the potential to actually sharpen it. If not, the 'compound' isn't likely helping or doing anything more than the bare paper could do on it's own; and that would be limited to scrubbing fine burrs off or otherwise just realigning them to stand straight.


David

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Different leather will obviously impact the finish.

On the ones I make I use extremely thin black chrome tanned leather, nap up. The stuff is almost as smooth as the grain side, but can hold compound if necessary.

Cut a slot in the top and you can put the end of a strip of 2.5k (or whatever) wet dry and fold it over the back.

I'm not currently making strops, but buy some good leather and it's easy to make your own.

 

[Snecx]

Turtle Wax Premium Rubbing Compound worked for me. Hair whittling mirror finish with the strop after going up to 5,000 grit sandpaper.