Stropping with toothpaste?

For my knives that I sharpen to a toothy edge I always strop with toothpaste as it prevents cavities!
 
While toothpaste has an abrasive it's not meant for steel ,there might be a better one. If you use one with whitener you'll have a white blade !!
 
Knives can be sharpened and stropped on literally thousands of materials. Most of us here are looking for the best way to sharpen for a given use. Not just something that works sort of OK.

I may try toothpaste after the apocolypse if my Edge Pro isn't available, but until someone shows that it's better than anything else, I'll pass. Heck, I have a hard enough time getting the edges I want with the tried & true equipment & materials. :)

JMHO,
Allen
 
Sadden said:
Tried it once. Didnt do a thing.
Click to expand...

That.^^

Most reputable toothpastes use an abrasive called 'hydrated silica', which is essentially no more abrasive than the natural silicates found in bare leather. So, using toothpaste on a leather strop wouldn't add any benefit at all, aside from the normal attributes of cleaning up loose debris on your edge. An easy way to see how little metal it actually abrades, if stropping, is to put some on clean white paper and strop on that. Any compounds meant for abrading or polishing steel will leave some dark streaks of metal swarf on the paper. Toothpaste won't.

And consider this: If you did find a toothpaste aggessive enough to actually abrade, polish or sharpen a steel knife edge, it would also strip the enamel from your teeth in short order. There's a very good reason why toothpaste isn't so aggressive, and shouldn't be. :eek:


David
 
I've used toothpaste as a general abrasive on soft metals, stabilized wood, plastics, and other materials. It does a great job, but on hardened steel, probably much less so. Although I haven't tried doing so myself.
 
Stropping with Simichrome polish on a paint stick works very well.
I don't recommend toothpaste.
 
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