Polishing Compound/Stropping Questions?

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Willieboy

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Jul 4, 2002
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I have a couple of Barkies on order and they will be my first convex ground blades. I've been reading up on sharpening techniques and it seems clear I should invest in black and green polishing compound. Since I've never used this stuff, I have a few questions:

Is one brand of compound better than another or are they all pretty much the same? Any recommendations/sources would be appreciated.

I have seen a stick of the black and a stick of green for $25. Is that the going rate? I would not have thought polishing compound would be so costly. Should I shop around?

How would a new shoe sole be for a stropping surface? I was thinking I could go down to the shoe repair store and buy a couple of size 13 soles.
 
Hand American's chrome oxide liquid and powder make a nice combination... apply the liquid first as it will make the leather hold onto more of the powder.

There is also white Linde A aluminum oxide rock polish (same size, 1/2 micron, as the chrome oxide, but a bit harder) that is also sometimes sold as strop powder (but cheaper buying mass quantities at lapidary supply dealers)

And, there is always 1/2 micron diamond spray for those really tough jobs like S30v.
 
The big bar is a lot of compound, it would be like buying a sharpening stone the size of a car. Most places that sell it for knife sharpening will sell small amounts. The big bars are meant for people who polish metals for a living. Yes there is a large difference in the compounds, some are made for soft metals (jewlers rouge), some are made for steel (green bars, chromium oxide based), and some are made for exceptionally hard steel (boron carbide or diamond).

-Cliff
 
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