strop compound

[flashlife]

If you only hand strop, that bar should last you the rest of your life. I'll probably put mine in my will to my son. He can give it to his son. It doesn't take much on a strop to do the job. If you can see green, it's still working.

Stitchawl

Yeah, but...
I find that I'm starting to collect(and try) strop/buff/polish compounds...as well as knives ! At least their usually cheap!
Just soak a scrap of manilla-folder cardboard with lighter fluid, rub on the pooky of your choice, let dry and strop away...

Some good ones are:
Sears Green,
Dico SCR (white, for stainless),
Harbor Freight Green (fine), and Black (coarse),
Dremel red rouge,
Metal-Glo Polish,
Pol Metallpfledge (scientific instrument polish, http://www.loeneninstruments.com/index.php?catid=499 )

BTW, if you find some powder buffing compounds (or sandblast grit),
you can make your own paste/bar polish by mixing the powder with Johnson's
Paste Wax (carnauba) 'til it barely holds together. Then smear on the strop and go.

 

[stitchawl]

HandAmerican used to sell a wide variety of stropping pastes, and of course, being a strop junkie I bought at least two jars of each one. That was years ago and of each, I have one jar never touched, and the second jar with just a small depression where I removed the gunk to use it. All different grits, and different bases. Lots of fun! I have a dedicated strop for each, and still use them all. But there is no way I'll ever see the bottom of even the first jar of each compound. In fact, I find that I use the liquid green chromium oxide more than any of the others and the first bottle of that is still half full.

I tried making some using green pigment powder from a paint suppy company and that worked pretty well but was really, really messy to use. The bar or liquid is a lot more enjoyable to use!

Stitchawl

 

[nc527]

well its just a small 2 in by 1 in white bar, and i use the buff wheel to convex an edge, then hand sharpen. Next time im out, ill pick up a bar of green and black bar.

 

[kta2402]

try Flitz polish

Just a note, Flitz polish is a chemical compound it is great for polishing and clean up but using it for stropping is the same as stropping on bare leather except the flitz will clean the blade, I use flitz as a cleaner/rust preventer, its great stuff. For compound, any green compound found at a hardware store is good as a cheap alternative.

 

[Jason B.]

Just a note, Flitz polish is a chemical compound it is great for polishing and clean up but using it for stropping is the same as stropping on bare leather except the flitz will clean the blade, I use flitz as a cleaner/rust preventer, its great stuff. For compound, any green compound found at a hardware store is good as a cheap alternative.

I don't understand why flitz is used either, it has no abrasive. Bar compound works but if you sharpen newer steels you will have problems. The high abrasion resistance of some steels is too much for standard compounds, you can spend hours stropping and see no results. Looking for the best deal is not always the best deal, if your going to use standard compounds get the good stuff and if you want to save money and frustration down the road buy diamond compound.

 

[hardheart]

Green compound is chromium oxide, that boss link mention stainless and hard meals... that is what people who are not knife knuts use chromium oxide for. The cheaper it is, the less finely grade it is for particle size. For the pics, the rough side would be better, you need to raise a nap on the leather anyway if you are going to load it with compound. The chromium oxide will work on martensite, which is still 90%+ of the cutting edge on the production super steels.