Stroping compounds

tarmix101

tarmix101

Joined
Jun 14, 2005
Messages
2,962
Been bitten by the carving bug lately. Still have snow on the ground up here, and I'm climbing the walls, so my shop has been my sanity.

Question. My Sloyd style carving knives are laminated steel. I used water stones to hone, and a strop loaded with (maroon colored) compound.

If I wanted a compound for the other side to bite a little better in the steel, or take a little more off; what would some of you suggest.

I have been told:

  • Jewelers rough
  • Green Chromium compound
  • and one said the maroon colored compound would work just fine. The compound I'm using now does a find job polishing, but isn't the best at removing the burr. Or, maybe it is, and I just don't know any different.:o

Any suggestions........:)
 
My most aggressive strop is loaded with 10 micron diamond paste (mixed with handamerican gel). This removes material faster than the stropping compounds I have used, and leaves the edge almost mirror.
 
Lee Valley Tools sells the green chromium oxide stuff -- a stick lasts a long time, works great.
 
Broos said:
My most aggressive strop is loaded with 10 micron diamond paste (mixed with handamerican gel). This removes material faster than the stropping compounds I have used, and leaves the edge almost mirror.
Click to expand...


Where do you normally buy your diamond past? Do you mix it yourself, or does it come that way? My experience with compounds is very limited.
 
I just went to the hardware store yesterday and noticed they have SIX different buffing compounds.

black, maroon, blue, green, white, red (I think, and not necessarily in that order)

They didnt give any info beside which order theyre in from coarsest to finest. I believe the green was the 3rd finest. They were half the price of the green bar I got at lee valley.

Any recommendations on which other colours I could be using?
 
tarmix101 said:
Where do you normally buy your diamond past? Do you mix it yourself, or does it come that way? My experience with compounds is very limited.
Click to expand...


I got a pkg of 3 tubes of DMT paste a few years ago at Woodcraft. About $50 for 1, 3, & 6 micron tubes. You can find cheaper stuff on-line.

Or you can try to find some water based pastes (DMT paste is oil based) - they are available on-line but I opted for the convenience of picking up locally.

I also would like to try some coarser diamond paste - 20 and larger micron.
 
tarmix101 said:
Where do you normally buy your diamond past? Do you mix it yourself, or does it come that way? My experience with compounds is very limited.
Click to expand...

McMaster Carr has various grits of diamond paste in several size containers. I buy the .25 micron in a syringe and it lasts quite a while...
 
honestly, I just use flexcut's compound and it works really well.

cheap too,

Brett
 
Someone, a while back, posted a chart showing the different grades of compound from coarsest to finest. If I recall, the black and white are more coarse than the green, and the red is among the finest.

I have three kinds in my shop. Red rouge (traditionall used by jewelers, et al) doesn;t do me much good on knives, so I don;t use it. The green is what I use for 99% of my stropping. I have some white crayon type that's a tad more coarse than the green, and some white Thiers-Issard that's noticeably more coarse than green.

Black is more coarse than green, but I don;t know how it compares against white. Somewhere one side or the other, I'm sure.

So...in my compound-limited experience, it's: white, green, then red being the finest.
 
bdws1975 said:
honestly, I just use flexcut's compound and it works really well.

cheap too,

Brett
Click to expand...

Stopped by my local Woodcraft store today and they gave me the same advise. I bought some of the Yellow compound and give it a shot. The carving expert gave me a little demo on of my Flexcut push tools and removed the burr quite nicely.

Thanks to all the replied.
 
Green rouge is the best, however for high vanadium steels it is not quite hard, so in case of CPM S90V I have to follow Green Rouge with 0.15 micron diamond spray.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top