Ryobi polishing compound, Home Depot

H

Haggard616

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Sep 15, 2014
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They have either a soft metal pack, or hard metal pack. The hard metal pack has one stick called simply "white rouge"
Which of these two packs should I buy for stropping? the hard or soft metal pack? Ive never stropped, I just made one from a good old leather belt and cedar board.. I want to make sure I buy the right compound now..
 
Give the white rouge a go. I don't know if it's the same formulation they've always used, but the older tube of Ryobi White Rouge I've got has worked very, very well on hard-backed linen or denim strops. The firmer the backing under the fabric, the better.

In general, when looking for 'buffing' compounds to be used on knife blades, always favor the 'hard metal' grades (hardened cutlery steel is 'hard metal'). Might also see some packaged for 'stainless steel', and those will usually work pretty well also. The 'soft metal' grades are usually best for brass, silver, aluminum, etc.


David
 
Based on David's recommendation of it, I looked for the now discontinued Ryobi "H" white compound and found some on the big auction site. I think I may've seen it available a couple of other places as well. Do a search for "Ryobi 4 oz. White Rouge "H" Buffing Compound Tube". I have likewise found it to be great stuff and I currently use it daily on a variety of knives.

Home Depot carries the slightly coarser "E" version, but I think online only. Do a search at HD for "Ryobi Stainless Steel Buffing Compound Tube". They will ship it to your local store and you can avoid shipping charges. I've been thinking of buying some (it's very cheap at $3.64 + tax), just to see if I could tell any difference from the "H" version.

I did a little research on the different flavors of Ryobi compound and posted it here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1201347-Ryobi-Compounds-Attempting-a-List

Andrew
 
AFAustin said:
Based on David's recommendation of it, I looked for the now discontinued Ryobi "H" white compound and found some on the big auction site. I think I may've seen it available a couple of other places as well. Do a search for "Ryobi 4 oz. White Rouge "H" Buffing Compound Tube". I have likewise found it to be great stuff and I currently use it daily on a variety of knives.

Home Depot carries the slightly coarser "E" version, but I think online only. Do a search at HD for "Ryobi Stainless Steel Buffing Compound Tube". They will ship it to your local store and you can avoid shipping charges. I've been thinking of buying some (it's very cheap at $3.64 + tax), just to see if I could tell any difference from the "H" version.

I did a little research on the different flavors of Ryobi compound and posted it here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1201347-Ryobi-Compounds-Attempting-a-List

Andrew
Click to expand...

For some dumb reason, I repeatedly forget that I did recently pick up a 3-pack of Ryobi's latest offering (pic below) at Home Depot, found in-store. Pretty sure it was the 'hard metals' combo of black emery, yellow(?) and white rouge, in the smaller mini-bars (as compared to the older 4 oz. tubes). Brought it home and it got buried away somewhere; must've been too busy that day, and it was promptly forgotten. I'll need to go digging for it again...

47ff76e7-3d77-4800-9a75-595a3f501703_400.jpg


The stuff I referenced earlier, that I liked quite a lot, was the (apparently discontinued) 'H' version listed at 2-5µ on the package.


David
 
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I'm sure that's the product HeavyHands has some experience with. Perhaps he'll visit this topic for a contribution. DM
 
hey yeh i had actually went and got both (well my dad picked them up for me) but anyway there is no rating either grit size or micron size on the box so i contacted home depot and asked for the "rating" they didn't have it so then i contacted ryobi and they had the same answer " we do not rate any of those compounds with either grit size or micron size" this got me kinda mad in my opinion any company's major responsibility is to "know" there products. especially with this type of product for example white rouge from one company can be slightly different from white rouge from another this goes for all compounds....so basically it was trial and error (luckily i had some spare leather around) to try the different compounds tried them all and the 3 that i use are the emery, stainless steel, jewelers rouge...depends what knife or tool i am using it on the 3 i listed are in order from coarsest to finest but as i said i have no idea what the rating is and neither does ryobi..... i suggest trial and error to see what works best for you
-Dave
 
I'm sure Ryobi knows what their grit sizes are; they just aren't sharing it with us (anymore, older versions aside). For the sake of manufacturing and quality control, they'd have to ensure their products fall within predictable performance expectations, so as not to lose complete control of what they're selling. Somewhere within their ranks, I'm sure at least some engineers are aware of the physical characteristics of the abrasives themselves, such as the abrasive type/mix, hardness, toughness, particle size & distribution. This is the sort of info that many vendors might regard as proprietary (especially if they designed and/or manufactured it for specific qualities), and may not want to publicize it, for the sake of protecting intellectual property.

At the price point of these stick-type compounds, I don't worry too much about whether the specifics are published. It's nice if they do; but even then, the only real way to know how it'll perform in a given use is to try it out. The thing I notice the most about these compounds is, their performance can vary WIDELY just in altering the substrate and backing upon which the compound is applied, and yet again on which steels they're used. This is why I've migrated into using very firm/hard-backed strops of denim or linen, as these have performed better with every compound I've used on them, after having already tried the same compounds on leather and other materials, with very mixed and different results.


David
 
I broke down and examined the grit from the black and white in that three pack. The white was between 1 and .5 micron, the black was between 30 and 15 micron. I haven't looked into the yellow.

Martin
 
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