Stropping compounds...

[KennyB]

I know there's a lot of information on stropping compounds available here, but too much of it is tied up into some other conversation, and I'm interested in something specific about it.

Basically I heard in another thread that the silicates in regular plain leather are 1/4 a micron in size, and that one should use a stropping compound that's 1 micron or half before that.

I strop on plain leather right after a 1K Norton stone and can shave with those results. I'm wondering, should I get another strop with some compound in between? Would this make the edge more refined, or would it just serve in polishing?

I'm mostly asking because, the leather is definitely doing a job on the edge after the 1K, so I'm wondering if I really need anything in between, or if I did if the results would come out better. Then the question is, what type of compound to get? I think if I had just a 1 micron paste, and then go to the leather, I wouldn't really notice anything happening faster, so what should I get?

In trying to answer this, I came across another question... What's the micron size of the 1K Norton? If I knew that I could probably just use my better judgment and get a few compounds that are somewhere in between.

 

[stitchawl]

Basically I heard in another thread that the silicates in regular plain leather are 1/4 a micron in size,

Actually, anywhere from 1/100 of a micron up to 1/4 micron, depending upon the animal from which the leather came.

I strop on plain leather right after a 1K Norton stone and can shave with those results. I'm wondering, should I get another strop with some compound in between? Would this make the edge more refined, or would it just serve in polishing?

If you are able to shave with an edge after stropping, why would you want to take it any further other than for cosmetics?

In trying to answer this, I came across another question... What's the micron size of the 1K Norton?

Maybe 25-50 mics? (just a guess...)
Hey, a micron is really, really small. A human hair can be between 25-150 microns. A sheet of newspaper about 100 microns. (these are approximations)

If you are getting good results, and are happy with these results, why change? The only thing adding an intermediate step to the stropping would to would be to reduce the stropping time of the next finer strop. You can actually go from a rough stone to a strop, but you'd be stropping for a long, long, LONG time. The finer stones and the thicker compounds just make each transition a bit faster.

Stitchawl

 

[Jason B.]

To see the true effects of 1 micron you would need to finish with a 10k or 12k stone first. 1 micron is about 15k.

I would suggest getting more stones first.

The finer the stone before the strop the sharper the edge. You don't go from 220 to 8k so why would you go 1k to 15k?

1k= about 10 microns

 

[KennyB]

Actually, anywhere from 1/100 of a micron up to 1/4 micron, depending upon the animal from which the leather came.



If you are able to shave with an edge after stropping, why would you want to take it any further other than for cosmetics?



Maybe 25-50 mics? (just a guess...)
Hey, a micron is really, really small. A human hair can be between 25-150 microns. A sheet of newspaper about 100 microns. (these are approximations)

If you are getting good results, and are happy with these results, why change? The only thing adding an intermediate step to the stropping would to would be to reduce the stropping time of the next finer strop. You can actually go from a rough stone to a strop, but you'd be stropping for a long, long, LONG time. The finer stones and the thicker compounds just make each transition a bit faster.

Stitchawl

I just have a weird urge to make things sharper, and if I could do that with the compounds rather than buying another stone that would be really cool.

I want to get another stone, but in the meantime I wanted to check out getting a couple of strops, mostly for speed's sake, but I did know there were some really fine compounds out there and wondered if I could "go to the next level" per se.

Perhaps I could get some 5 micron paste to speed up stropping a little bit? If the 1K is about 10 microns, then going down to about half would probably make a pretty aggressive strop right?

 

[Jason B.]

Classicshaving.com has 9 micron amplex and you could probably follow that with DMT compound. FYI, you probably want to use MDF or balsa instead of leather.

 

[KennyB]

Classicshaving.com has 9 micron amplex and you could probably follow that with DMT compound. FYI, you probably want to use MDF or balsa instead of leather.

Hmm, out of curiosity... Why not on leather? I've seen people do both. I assume the MDF/balsa just provides a more uniform surface?

Also, where can I find 9 micron paste? I'm not having much luck finding any on Google.

 

[stitchawl]

I just have a weird urge to make things sharper, and if I could do that with the compounds rather than buying another stone that would be really cool.

You can do that easily.

Perhaps I could get some 5 micron paste to speed up stropping a little bit? If the 1K is about 10 microns, then going down to about half would probably make a pretty aggressive strop right?

Right. And in fact, you can get diamond or CrO2 compound much smaller than 5 mics if you really want to use smaller and smaller steps. But use a "good quality" HORSEHIDE strop as your finishing leather, with no compound. The higher the quality horsehide, the finer the silicates in the leather. The finer the silicates in the leather, the sharper the edge can be produced. Just like a chain... it all boils down to one single step... the last one. If one link in the chain is weak, or if your final strop is too coarse, the edge just doesn't cut it... so to speak! If that final strop is cowhide, or low quality horsehide, the edge just won't be a sharp as if you'd used a high quality horsie!

Stitchawl