Okay i bought a deluxe 5 piece set. Sharpens great used it once. I have bought a blue saphire polishing hone, as well as a stropping hone for this kit to get more razor sharp and mirrored desired effects. i have bought white and green buffering compounds and i plan on buying black at lowes or some place soon. Can i use multiple compounds on one stropping hone and wipe/wash it off then move to another compound? Or do i need 4 more strops to do this? Keep in ming they are like 12 bucks a piece so id rather not do that at all. Also can i use the compound on say the ultra fine hone and saphire hone, or would these clog the hones up? Any info on how to use this kit on what i have and to not use or buy anything else would be super helpful. I am using this mostly for my tac-force spring assisted milano switchblade. I know its a cheap knife, but it has a super super sharp point. And with this lansky system is pretty damn sharp. So please dont nag me on what knife im using lol, just a newb trying to get this cheap knife a 100 dollar finish.
Unless you're SURE that you favor one compound over another, I'd avoid mixing them on one strop. The only time I might do it, is if the original compound is considerably finer than the one you're trying next. If going the other way (switching to a finer compound from a coarse one), the remnants of the coarse compound will dominate or overwhelm any gains that might've been achieved with the finer compound.
One can go to greater lengths to 'clean up' a simple veg-tanned leather strop by sanding it thoroughly to completely strip any old compound off. Otherwise, if trying to simply wipe it off or wash it, there'll always be leftover grit embedded in the leather.
I'd encourage you to experiment with as many compounds as you can afford, but do it using just some leather scraps instead. Find a larger piece of decent-quality veg-tanned leather, hopefully some that reasonably mimics the leather of your Lansky's stropping hone, and cut it into strips. If attempting to duplicate the footprint of the Lansky's stropping hone (should be 4" x 1/2", if it's like the rest of the hones), then it obviously won't require a very large piece of leather. Tandy or Hobby Lobby, or perhaps a saddle shop should have leather that'd work well enough. At some point, you'll hopefully find a compound or two that you know you like, and that's the time to apply it to your dedicated 'good' strops. You might even find that one or more of your 'experimental' strops works excellently, and may become your default, 'Go-to' strops for regular use (I've got a couple or three favorites that started out as such).
In the long run, I'd also encourage you to build a larger strop. Unless an edge is already very highly refined off the stones, it can sometimes be difficult to improve much upon it by stropping, and a very small strop will be all the more limited.
David
