Stone/Strop questions

S

sixfoot7

Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
476
Two questions for the gang to help me with if you could please.

I have a stone that I inherited from a friend of mine, a Native Canadian carver who used this to sharpen all his small detail knives to an unbelieveable edge. I have found that it seems to put a better final edge than my Sharpmaker UF stones if I use it after them. Does any body know what kind of stone (grit or brand) this is by the picture/colour? There are no identifying marks on it or the holder (which was homemade). The stone is approx. 2 x 4 3/4 inches. Can anyone identify it as to the grit, brand or type?




Next question. I have a standard Lee Valley 2- sided leather strop, one side is loaded with green stick compound which I initially crayoned on, the tried to put it on after softening it significantly with a hair dryer. It is now loaded unevenly across the surface, and there seems to be one dime sized spot where the compound does not want to stick to.
So should I clean it off and start over, and if so, how do I remove the old compound, or should I just give up on that side and use the other side, and how can I apply it more evenly this time?

Thanks to all that can help,

Rik
 
I had a similar problem with my strop - I eventually just crayoned the hell out of it, and it turned out fine. No heat, just lots of elbow grease. Maybe that will help?
 
the stone looks like it could be an arkansas stone, but its hard to tell which grade. could be translucent or possibly a soft.

about the strop, i suggest just keep laying it on...it will even out eventually. also, i have heard about warming the leather up itself, instead of just the crayon. so put the hairdryer on the leather, that might help.
 
I agree that it looks like a arkansas stone but there is really no way to tell what one. You have too much compound on your strop, it should only be a very thin layer, just enough to coat the leather. I have never used a stick compound for this very reason but have heard others talk about mixing it with miniral oil to turn it into a liquid.
 
siguy said:
the stone looks like it could be an arkansas stone, but its hard to tell which grade. could be translucent or possibly a soft.

about the strop, i suggest just keep laying it on...it will even out eventually. also, i have heard about warming the leather up itself, instead of just the crayon. so put the hairdryer on the leather, that might help.
Click to expand...

I'll give that a try, thanks.



knifenut1013 said:
I agree that it looks like a arkansas stone but there is really no way to tell what one. You have too much compound on your strop, it should only be a very thin layer, just enough to coat the leather. I have never used a stick compound for this very reason but have heard others talk about mixing it with miniral oil to turn it into a liquid.
Click to expand...

If I have too much compound, can you suggest a method of removal? Scraping would give me concerns of damaging the smoothness of the leather. To mix it with mineral oil, do you have a ratio of oil/compound? Sounds like I'd be making a slurry of some sort to "paint" the strop with.

I think the stone might be a "true hard" Arkansas stone, don't think it's soft as it puts a little better final edge after the UF stones.
Thanks to the 3 people above who have replied, any others are free to add their own opinions/methods.
 
Bumpity bump. Any other suggestions with regards to the strop, clean it off (and how to), or leave it and do the other side, or something else?
 
I have read that some people spray the strop with WD-40 to clean off the compound.

this is what knivesplus does to their strops
we raise the leather's nap by scraping with a razor blade to allow the polish to penetrate the leather and give it a "bite" when used.
Next, we melt down a high chrome rouge in olive oil until it is the consistency of thick vasoline. We smear and work this preparation into the leather surface with a hard rolled shop rag until the surface of the strop is thoroughly saturated and coated. Then we let the polish sink in and set for two days under low heat.
Finally, we rescrape the surface of the strop to remove excess polish and reset the nap.
Click to expand...
 
knifenut1013 said:
I agree that it looks like a arkansas stone but there is really no way to tell what one. You have too much compound on your strop, it should only be a very thin layer, just enough to coat the leather. I have never used a stick compound for this very reason but have heard others talk about mixing it with miniral oil to turn it into a liquid.
Click to expand...

I just got myself the Lee Valley strop-and-compound setup myself.

What I did was to "crayon" some on, so the strop was partially "colored in". The compound in the wax really did go on like crayon, in thick streaks. So I then put a small amount on mineral oil on the strop, and rubbed it in with my fingers. Broke up the streaks (waxy chunks), and now the leather is all uniformly somewhat green. Much (most?) of the compound wound up on my hands, but that cleaned up easily.

Does that sound about right?
 
GregY said:
I just got myself the Lee Valley strop-and-compound setup myself.

What I did was to "crayon" some on, so the strop was partially "colored in". The compound in the wax really did go on like crayon, in thick streaks. So I then put a small amount on mineral oil on the strop, and rubbed it in with my fingers. Broke up the streaks (waxy chunks), and now the leather is all uniformly somewhat green. Much (most?) of the compound wound up on my hands, but that cleaned up easily.

Does that sound about right?
Click to expand...

I've been using a similar setup for quite sometime and that's what I do. It seems to work well for me.
 
GregY said:
I just got myself the Lee Valley strop-and-compound setup myself.

What I did was to "crayon" some on, so the strop was partially "colored in". The compound in the wax really did go on like crayon, in thick streaks. So I then put a small amount on mineral oil on the strop, and rubbed it in with my fingers. Broke up the streaks (waxy chunks), and now the leather is all uniformly somewhat green. Much (most?) of the compound wound up on my hands, but that cleaned up easily.

Does that sound about right?
Click to expand...

Sound's right to me, as long as there's no lumps of compound you should be good.
 
it's a translucent arkansas stone, also called 'surgical' arkansas. might be on the edge of hard & translucent, but definitely translucent. :)

the closest thing i'd compare it to is an extra-fine ceramic stone. it's more a polish stone than any other grade of arkansas, removes very little metal and burnishes the edge nicely. the fact your friend did well with it is a reflection of his practice and skill, the rocks aren't so very easy to learn to use well.

fwiw, waterstones are much more forgiving, and easier to work with, than arkansas stones as commonly sold. few are of the quality shown, don't expect it nor believe claims from dealers until verified.. a few specks of harder inclusion (iron) will ruin the stones usefulness and they don't always show until you use it. you just have to HOPE you're getting a good one, which is the best arguement for synthetic stones so far. any natural stone may have an odd bit of grit that ruins the surface, and hopefully you can flatten the stone a shade and knock it loose, but not always. I use tiny stones cut from similar formation, 3/8 x1/8 x3" as finger burnishing stones, some vintage watchmakers tools. worth chasing down..
 
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