What compound should I use?

A

ackeith4570

Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
362
I have always bought strops preloaded with compound or they came with it and now i want to build my own strops. I was planning on making 2-4 strops. I just want to know what would be the best compound for it. I want to have options, i have DMT stones coarse - xxf. Some knives i only use the coarse stone and would like a strop for after that. and some knives i bring to a mirror polish i want a strop for that so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
 
You are going to get a wide variety of answers I suspect. My initial advice is to go with Flexcut Gold for most fine end stropping - not as fine as some, but as polished as you might like while still having a little bit of bite.

Coming off a coarse stone, the black compound from Sears will work well, or you can simply wrap two sheets of paper around the same coarse stone and strop on that. It has to be pretty much burr free, but you might be surprised how well this works.
 
What steels are you sharpening (or planning to)? Depending on the answer to that question, some compounds may be better than others.

For very high-wear steels (S30V/S90V/etc), and polished edges on same, I'd bet diamond compound or similar super-hard compounds like CBN, a.k.a. Cubic Boron Nitride, would do better. For most other mainstream steels, you have a lot of options. I like chromium oxide (green) compound on simple carbon steels like 1095 and Case CV, as well as for simpler stainless like 420HC, 440A/C, etc. For slightly higher-alloy steels like VG-10, ATS-34, 154CM, D2, etc., either SiC (silicon carbide; always black or very dark grey) or aluminum oxide compounds (white, pink, blue; includes Flitz & Simichrome polishing pastes) work very well. Green usually does well/OK as a follow-up step on these steels, behind the SiC or AlOx compounds.

Lately, I'm living very comfortably with just silicon carbide (600-grit powder) and green compound, used on either wood, leather or both in sequence, followed by bare leather stropping. :)


David
 
Last edited:
Green for my carbon, which all have fine edges, save one.

White or Carving Knife specific (aluminum oxide) for everything else.

I really see the best results from the Green (chromium oxide) loaded strop on fine carbon edges. The improvement can be very noticeable. The others are more for my own amusement than anything productive. Not saying they don't work, they do, but not to the same high degree as the other. If I only had super steels, I could get by without strops altogether.
 
I use black and green on all my knives. Properly hardened D2 with green does take a few minutes, but it works.

We have a new store here called Northern Tools. They have every color compound you could want. I bet there are 10 different colors. 1/4 pound sticks in a tube are about $2 ea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top