Toothpaste on a strop?

2

2REDUCK

Joined
Feb 27, 2000
Messages
40
I have been wondering for a while if toothpaste would work when used on a strop. Before you fall out of a chair laughing remember that toothpaste is a mild abrasive so it just might work.

Anyone have a reason why it won't work before I try it on my own strop and potentially ruin it.
 
I don't know how the toothpaste would do, but the 0.5 micron Veritas polishing/honing compound from www.leevalley.com (click on woodworking, then sharpening, then knife sharpening, then blade honing compound) is pretty inexpensive. In the long run, there might not be much cost advantage to using toothpaste.
 
I have used tooth paste as a compound before. There are better things out there, but it does work.
 
I don't know what is in toothpaste these days, but in the old days they actually used diatomaceous earth, a fine abrasive made from diatom remains. Diatoms are microscopic golden-brown algal protists who secrete geometrically fascinating silicon dioxide "skeletons." Hardness of 7 or so on the Moh's scale of mineral hardness. Diatomaceous earth is still used as an abrasive.
 
I've used toothpaste several times. (once or twice even on my teeth!)

It works, but it's an endeavor to test the patience of a Saint.

I don't know that I'd want to put it on a good leather strop, it can't be good for the leather. However if you wanted to put it on a scrap of leather and try that I don't see any reason why you shouldn't get good results. (Good results being a very nice and extremely slow polishing job.)
 
While on the topic of Polishing a blade, any pointers on using a Dremel?
For example, a felt wheel, their polishing compound (Jeweler's rouge?), and WHAT RPM's would you use?
Also, to prevent "swirls", should one use the "top" part of the felt wheel, or just "load up" the "sides"
I hope you can follow me...:confused: :confused: THANKS.....wolf
 
I don`t know how effective toothpaste woud be as a polishing compound but it would definately leave your blade minty fresh!:p
 
Polishing compounds work only if the abrasive mineral is harder than the metal being polished. I suggest the Veritas honing compound, it is hard enough to handle RC 60+ blade materials.
 
Originally posted by wolfmann601
While on the topic of Polishing a blade, any pointers on using a Dremel?
For example, a felt wheel, their polishing compound (Jeweler's rouge?), and WHAT RPM's would you use?
Also, to prevent "swirls", should one use the "top" part of the felt wheel, or just "load up" the "sides"
I hope you can follow me...:confused: :confused: THANKS.....wolf
Click to expand...

I never had much luck polishing a blade with a dremel tool. It worked well for spots that needed to be smooth, but not cosmetically perfect (pivot areas), but I could never get rid of the swirls completely. I had better luck doing the rough polishing with the dremel (to bring bead blasting down to barely mirror) and finishing with a paste made of Borax and water. BTW, that paste also works well for polishing G10 and buffalo horn.

Chris
 
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