sharpening question

[kokoek9]

I touched up my kukri using a leather belt glued to a dowel. I noticed a black build up starting how do I clean it thanks

 

[Bookie]

Not enough info.

 

[ndoghouse]

Pics? What you using as an abrasive? Black where?

 

[kokoek9]

all I have used are carborundum and Arkansas stones and a steel or the chamak nothing on the leather although I use white buffing compound on my other leather strop and I don't oil my stones I use water

 

[Mark Hubbard]

Where is the build-up on the blade? Perhaps the black is from the dyes in the belt? What solvents have you tried? (I'd try Goo-Gone first, then lighter fluid if Goo-Gone didn't work, and finally acetone if neither Goo-Gone or lighter fluid worked.)

If you have a bench grinder with a cotton wheel, you should be able to remove almost any discoloration; just be careful not to let the grinder/buffer throw the knife out of your hands. A light pressure and a little green rouge is all you need.

[Alzheimer moment here: what are the sticks of buffing/polishing compound called? "Rouge" is all I could think of at the moment. Sorry.]

 

[kokoek9]

I think you mis understand the build up is on the hone leather not the knife, I just made so the build up is just starting. I want to know how to clean it when I have to

 

[davidf99]

1. Since the buildup is on the leather, I suggest that you use a piece of scrap leather and experiment with various ways to clean the black stuff off the leather.

2. When I use Flitz or other metal polishing compounds on a white cotton cloth (pieces of a worn out undershirt) to clean tarnish off an HI blade, I always get a black residue on the cloth. I don't know exactly what the black material is, but I suspect it's a mixture of the polishing compound and surface molecules from the high carbon blade. Maybe that's the same stuff you are getting on the leather. My solution is to throw away the cotton cloth. Since you probably don't want to throw away your honing leather, see 1 above.

 

[Thomas Linton]

The black stuff is probably steel. I do a lot of stropping on plain cardboard, and it turns black.

 

[kokoek9]

what about simple soap and water, thats what I clean my stones with

 

[ndoghouse]

I think you mis understand the build up is on the hone leather not the knife, I just made so the build up is just starting. I want to know how to clean it when I have to

Use a big pencil eraser. Sorry i thought you meant knife too.

 

[TheQuest]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/697770-Cleaning-a-strop