stropping paste

[Harlan Barnhart]

I use a leather strop charged with a big green crayon of jewelers paste. It seems to produce satisfactory results but before I use the other side, I would like to hear of other options. What are the rest of ya'll using on your strops.

[george wilson]

Flitz metal polish is good,or Simichrome. If you put some on the strop,and use it while it's wet,especially the Flitz,it will feel like you aren't accomplishing anything. However,the slippery polish really makes a very sharp edge.

Beyond that,I let the polish get really worn out,as it gets finer with use and the strop turns gray.

[Kari Hultman]

I use a white compound, but I don't remember where I bought it. Here is a link to someone who is a brilliant sharpener. You might find some helpful info: http://www.pinewoodforge.com/sharpening.html

[Stephen Shepherd]

I use the traditional Tripoli or rottenstone, the crayons don't seem to be consistant and mess up the strop.

Stephen

[Heather Thompson]

I sharpen mostly with my Tormek and use their compound, also use simichrome and jewelers rouge on a strop.

Heather

[Tony Zaffuto]

I use a dollop of DuPont PerFectIt III (auto body paint rub out past) on a piece of MDF or hardwood.

[Montgomery Scott]

DurSol is the same as the Tormek PA70 product but much less expensive. I've used it on my bench chisels and it produces a nice mirror polish. I used it on a piece of MDF and it cut pretty quickly.

[Andy Hsieh]

I use this crox powder that I bought from handamerican on my tool strop - same stuff I use for felt strop for my straight razors

it does well and has no particles above .5 microns
not so much an issue with tool edges but makes a tremendous difference on razors when shaving :)

[Callan Campbell]

I use Lee Valley's green compound, works very well. I've also use the Tormek paste as well.

[george wilson]

Some of the compounds like rottenstone aren't designed for metal cutting,and aren't as efficient as those that are so designed. Try to select polishes and compounds developed to cut or polish metal.

[Harlan Barnhart]

Hmm... interesting but not so helpful. Everyone seems to have their favorites. Has anyone used both "green crayon" and another type to offer a comparison? Is there a downside to using two types on the same strop (top and bottom)?

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Harlan

You may find this comparison and tutorial I did useful ..

"Stropping with Green Rouge verses Diamond Paste": http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/Stroppingwithgreenrougeversesdiamondpaste.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Paulson]

You folks have made some great suggestions. I use white compound on a leather covered wheel to strop many of my tools. On my worksharp I've been using green compound and when I am hand stroping I have used red rouge or even valve grinding compound on leather. I learned about using valve griniding compound from some fellow woodcarvers many years ago. I prefer using rouge over using anything else.

Take care,
Jim

[Derek Cohen]

Questions for those with Tormeks, etc:

1. Do you use the stropping wheel?

2. How do you strop the back of the blade?

3. If you first hone on waterstones, etc, do you feel that the blade ends up sharper or not?

Regards from Perth

Derek (who own, uses and likes his Tormek but does not use the stropping wheel)

[Jeff Farris]

Derek,

I know you're a hand tool guy, but consider the surface feet per minute offered by the Tormek honing wheel compared to the surface feet per minute achieved when stropping by hand. The only mental hurdle to clear is working a flat surface on a curve, but here's the thing, the leather isn't aggressive enough to change the shape of the steel, only its surface finish. That is, unless you round over the edge by approaching the leather at too steep an angle. But, that is not nearly as hard to avoid as some folks think.

First thing you need to do is get a grip on how much honing compound to use and how often. For you guys that just got your machines (or have never used the honing wheel), put one extremely thin stripe of compound all the way around the wheel for every tool you sharpen. When I say extremely thin, I really mean it. Put the nozzle physically on the wheel and gently squeeze the tube while turning the grindstone by hand. Once you get a feel for it, you can do it with the machine running, but I wouldn't to start. You can, if you want, condition the leather with mineral oil to start. It will save you a little bit of compound. But, that is a break in process only, and after you do it once, you should never do it again. Nothing but compound from now on. After a couple dozen tools, you can cut back to using a thin stripe of compound every second or third tool.

As for the technique, I like to compare problems with the honing wheel to the old joke about the guy that goes into the doctor holding his arm at an odd angle and swinging it back and forth while explaining to the doctor that it hurts when he does this. To which the doctor replies, "I suggest you stop doing that." Rounding over an edge on the leather wheel is very easily corrected, just stop holding the tool at the wrong angle.

When polishing the burr off the back of a blade, lay the blade onto the honing wheel well behind the edge -- an inch or so. Put your fingers on the back of the blade just behind the bevel. Hold the tool at an angle such that as you pull the tool back toward yourself, the cutting edge will just kiss the leather at the tangent to the arc. One easy way to get a feel for this is to do it at 3 o'clock on the honing wheel, where you can look straight down at the gap between the tool and the wheel. Slowly draw the tool down until that gap closes, and then stop at the exact point where the shadow disappears. If you've rounded an edge you've gone well past this point.

The same process is involved on the bevel side. Start out with the back of the bevel on the leather, but the edge off the leather. Lift the angle until the entire bevel is on the leather. If you do it at 3 o'clock, you can watch the gap. If you do it more than a couple times, you will start to feel that as the bevel seats onto the leather, the tool will sort of drop down the curve of the wheel. That is the sweet spot. Hold it right there and give it a little back and forth motion without changing the angle. On the bevel side, you have a great deal of latitude on the angle. You almost have to try to bring the angle too steep to round over the edge. In fact. I have laid down some seriously fine secondary bevels by bringing the angle up a little off the bevel and leaning into it a bit.

Hope this helps.

[Russ Kay]

I don't bother to strop plane or chisel blades, feeling that I get them more than sharp enough using my Shapton stones (up through 8000).

But for knife blades (I collect knives, and almost always carry two or three on me, they're almost all convex ground, and they better be sharp!) I do almost nothing else but strop them. I've used a natural product called Yellowstone (it's actually kind of peach in color) that cuts quite aggressively but works very well. But in recent years I've moved mainly to two compounds (black and green) that are used and distributed by a Michigan UP knife company called Bark River. The compounds are available at Knivesshipfree dot com in case anyone is interested.

[Zach England]

Stupid question:

What is the difference between stropping paste and honing compound?

[Jeff Farris]

Zach,

I believe, in common usage, there is no difference. There may be technical differences that I am not aware of, but for practical purposes, they're the same thing.

[Dan Barr]

I use the Flexcut yellow compound on a strop and a piece of MDF. i also have another piece of flat leather glued to a piece of flat plexiglass. all three are charged with the flexcut.

I use the green compound on a muslin wheel on my grinder.

I can not say that either one offers results superior or inferior to the other. they are both excellent at polishing and getting to that "beyond" razor sharp edge.

However, i prefer the flat surfaces with the flexcut for initial honing because I dont want to risk rounding the edge of a blade on the muslin wheel.

I use the muslin wheel while working because it is convenient for touch ups and i am not worried about rounding because i am already blunting the edge by working the wood (especially on mortice chisels). i work with my mortice chisels for longer periods before i go back to honing on stones. it is not worth it to go back to honing so frequently with mortice chisels. (i use no microbevels either)

I will go back to the waterstones and flat polishing surfaces on occasion if the edge needs more work that just a touch up (typically on plane blades). I keep my plane blades in much sharper condition while working than mortice chisels. (once again, no microbevels)

when i am deliberately honing, not working wood at that time, then i use the waterstones and then the flat surfaces with the flexcut to establish my initial edge.

I also have the jet slow speed water grinder. i use the leather wheel on that but only between lower grits. i use the white compound that came with it. i would not use this compound for higher levels of poslishing. Its good, but not as fine as the flexcut or green compound. However, it is really good for polishing up the faces of chisels and plane blades. I don't go for perfectly flat. i do go for 99% flat and am content when a chisel or blade face wont polish on a waterstone accross the whole face. As long as the surface near the cutting edge is evenly flat and polishes up well, im happy.

my process: (from intial grinding)
-flatten/lap face to flat, then polish
-grind initial hollow ground bevel using the jet slow speed water grinder.
-use fine diamond plate to touch up and establish honing surface.
-i then go to the leather wheel (on the jet slow speed water grinder) to smooth that out and polish. (this allows me to easily see my initial scratch pattern when honing so that i know im getting a good hone)
-then on to waterstones, working up.
-then on to the strop or other flat suface to put the final touch on the edge.

sounds long, but it's not really that much work. goes quick.

while working, i use the muslin wheel to touch up chisels and the flat leather glued to the plexiglas to touch up plane blades.

i flatten and polish both the faces and the bevels

i could use the green compound on the strop or the flexcut on the muslin wheel and i believe that both would perform just as well in either capacity.

cheers,

dan

[Sandy Stanford]

I use a leather strop charged with a big green crayon of jewelers paste. It seems to produce satisfactory results but before I use the other side, I would like to hear of other options. What are the rest of ya'll using on your strops.

Dovo strop paste.