So many colors.....compound help

Liveitloud

Liveitloud

Joined
Jul 1, 2006
Messages
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Okay I will admit upfront I know little if anything about stropping. Recently I ordered a leather strop with green and pink compound. I had heard from a knife maker to put the green on the rough side of the strop and the pink on the smooth side of the strop.

He said to start with the green and finish with the pink. When my items arrived somehow I either ordered wrong or there was a mistake on the order. What I have is a bar of the green and this bar that came in a box that says white gold honing compound.

The green went on pretty easy. Kind of like using a crayon. The white however is dry and hard and flakes off when I tried to put it on the strop. It has a lot of grit to it and now I am wondering if this is what I need to be using on the finish end of a blade. It seems too coarse.

Could someone please explain to me the differences in the different colors of compound and some general info about application as it relates to putting a sharp edge on an already sharp knife that needs a touch up? I would appreciate any advice anyone had. Thanks!
 
White is a bit courser than the green so use the white first then green.
I normally scrape some white into a container put a tiny amount of olive oil in as well then melt it over a low heat, you will be able to spread it on like the green.

Richard
 
Liveitloud said:
Okay I will admit upfront I know little if anything about stropping. Recently I ordered a leather strop with green and pink compound. I had heard from a knife maker to put the green on the rough side of the strop and the pink on the smooth side of the strop.

He said to start with the green and finish with the pink. When my items arrived somehow I either ordered wrong or there was a mistake on the order. What I have is a bar of the green and this bar that came in a box that says white gold honing compound.

The green went on pretty easy. Kind of like using a crayon. The white however is dry and hard and flakes off when I tried to put it on the strop. It has a lot of grit to it and now I am wondering if this is what I need to be using on the finish end of a blade. It seems too coarse.

Could someone please explain to me the differences in the different colors of compound and some general info about application as it relates to putting a sharp edge on an already sharp knife that needs a touch up? I would appreciate any advice anyone had. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Only green is needed, on my experience.

I use only green and it is enough to make edge whittle free hanging hair. However there is different green compounds - is it marked how fine it is? I use it on smooth side of the leather:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nozh2002?feature=mhum#p/u/75/3WY8rhecws8

Thanks, Vassili.
 
I use bar compounds primarily for my buffing wheels, mostly because they were made for that purpose, and partly because I don't know the abrasive grit size of those compounds.

I prefer DMT Diapaste compounds in 6, 3, and 1 microns and 0.5 Chromium Oxide paste and 0.25 micron diamond spray after that. Though my stropping technique isn't quite as refined, plus I use my knives hard, so I don't see too much point in going through all that everyday.
 
Liveitloud said:
First, thanks to everyone that replied.

The green bar says green chromium oxide sharpening compound and nothing else. Does that help at all?
Click to expand...

Hard to say. It may be too coarse to do hair whittling. I had trouble with one from Woodcraft, which was also sharpening compound. The one I have initially was from jeweler store and was marked there as polishing compound - it provides mirror polish, while one from Woodcraft did not do better then fine matte. I guess jewelers finer - never seen matte gem.

However KAI polish from Japanese Woodworker works fine for me.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
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