Stropping Compound (noob question)

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FlyingKiwi

Joined
May 9, 2010
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I bought a bar of green 'polishing compound'. The description says "LIGHT GREEN COMPOUND - High gloss finish on copper, brass and stainless steel."

The colour is a washed-out lime green.

I have a black leather strop and I loaded it with the compound, expecting to see a visible layer of chalky green on the strop. Instead there was a very light film which was more white than anything else, and it felt like I had just rubbed a big candle over the leather. I now looked more closely at the compound and realised that it was obviously held in some kind of wax. This surprised me, as I was expecting it to be chalky, like a compressed block of powder.

I then decided to rub it in vigerously and melt it a little with a hair drier, and this helped, but when i bagan to strop, small lumps of wax collected on the knife edge. Did I over load the strop?

The knife did get sharper and have a higher polish then had previously, but I also wonder that if the compound is a lighter colour, is it just a lower concentration that will cause me to load the strop up with lots of wax and minimal abrasive?


My real question is if I bought the right compound. Should it be suspended like it is, in wax? Or am I just applying it wrongly?

Sorry for the noob question :o


Thanks for the help
 
No such thing as a 'noob' question, my friend, only questions. In answer, yes the actual abrasive compound is held in suspension by the wax or resin. The white color you report is normal, however it does sound like you overloaded your strop. A little 'swipe' will do ya.

Because I am old and ignorant, I just use some Brasso on an old belt. :o
 
The use wax because it made for use on power tools.

Though its working a better compound will yield better results, liquid or powder chromium oxide is a more pure compound and won't give you so many problems.

For the best in stropping compounds look at diamond paste and spray.
 
A good way to load up a strop with the green compound is to us WD-40 sprayed on a rag. Work the compound into the strop with the oily rag. This moves it down into the leather and prevents the stuff from building up on the blade. I was loading my stop up way too much and this trick really helped.

I have been told that you need to be able to see leather through the compound to know you've got it right.

Now that I have that down, I color some on from time to time like a crayon and as soon as I have a thin, frosty green layer, I stop.
 
I feel like I wasted a few hundred dollars on stropping products after a month of using the slotted paper wheel. Honestly, when you can put a hair whittling edge on ZDP-189, CTS-XHP, and VG-10 at HRC 62 in about a minute or two, everything suddenly feels almost TOO easy.

In fact, I've been looking for more wear resistant & tough steels(Dozier D2, CPM 3V, CPM 10V, CPM S125V) in order to get a little more enjoyment out of the process. I've been considering having my S110V Shallot heat treated and regrinded to see if I can't make that wheel sing.
 
HoosierQ said:
A good way to load up a strop with the green compound is to us WD-40 sprayed on a rag. Work the compound into the strop with the oily rag. This moves it down into the leather and prevents the stuff from building up on the blade. I was loading my stop up way too much and this trick really helped.
Click to expand...

Thanks I just tried your method and it seems to dissolve the wax and let it soak into the leather. I then rubbed a tissue with WD-40 on it on the block of compound and it seems to polish the metal up nicely by hand, turning the tissue black from metal filings in a few seconds.

Thanks for the advice :D:thumbup:
 
Check out KSF for the black and green compounds that you draw on like oversized crayons. You can get their strop too and the whole kit costs less than $50.

No messing around trying to get the compound into the leather, just draw on and away you go. And this is coming from a COMPLETE noob.
 
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