Strop care and maintenance

[Rob Luter]

Where do you all source your sticks of green compound? I picked up one from a local Harbor Freight and it's pretty much trash. It's like a big stick of chalk. It works OK once you can get it on the leather, but charging the leather is a tough trick.

I see Lee Valley has a 6oz bar and it has good reviews. Next time they do free shipping I may pick one up.

[Stewie Simpson]

Based on ease of application, a better option for hand strops is the Pure Chromium Oxide Paste. IMO

[Rob Luter]

Based on ease of application, a better option for hand strops is the Pure Chromium Oxide Paste. IMO

I guess I didn't know the paste was available. Thanks for the tip Stewie.

[Pete Taran]

Perhaps Stewart can set us straight, but I think that chromium oxide stick is just chromium oxide in a wax base. Heating some up in mineral spirits or whatever will dissolve the wax will get that brew which I agree will be much easier to apply than the crayon. Stewart, what do you use to dissolve it?

Pete

[Barney Markunas]

Heating up anything in mineral spirits is not for the faint of heart. I'd make sure you have a beefy fire extinguisher handy.

[Patrick McFate]

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While we're on the subject of strops, I am curious about the leather that you are using. I found some scraps of suede at my local hobby store and tried to make a strop out of that stuff, but the "fuzzy" side is veryusfuzzy, making for a very uneven, bumpy surface. Where might I get something more like the tooling leather that you're using here? And can it be gotten in small quantities?

Thanks in advance for helping a baby Neanderthal.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Where do you all source your sticks of green compound? I picked up one from a local Harbor Freight and it's pretty much trash. It's like a big stick of chalk. It works OK once you can get it on the leather, but charging the leather is a tough trick.

I see Lee Valley has a 6oz bar and it has good reviews. Next time they do free shipping I may pick one up.

The Lee Valley bar has good reviews. The Formax Green Chrome Oxide Compound has an excellent reputation from what I can tell. Woodcraft sells two sizes of this bar. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/g...-compound-6-oz The larger bar has a description on their web site, but in store, while reading the package, they appear to be the same https://www.woodcraft.com/products/m...oning-compound This is also available on Amazon for about $17 with prime delivery.

I think that Lee Valley sells the Formax compound, but I could be mistaken. I don't remember how I came to that conclusion. On multiple other forums, many people swore by (rather than at) Formax as the only green compound that they would use.

At one time, I spent time reading about the FlexCut Compound. I do not remember off hand, which has the finest average size. I belivee that the FlexCut compound has a good reputation, but I have never tried it on knives or chisels, but I do have two bars of it to try. https://www.amazon.com/Flexcut-Gold-.../dp/B000ZRZQIO

Finally, many people like to use the Tormek PA-70 compound even on hand strops. This is a paste and a little goes a long way. Numerous places sell this, and here is an amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Compound-Torm.../dp/B00149DIBE

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Here's an article on strops from the place I got my sharpening kit: https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/U...s-W111C60.aspx

They don't make any recommendation for using oil on a mounted strop. They sell a "dressing" liquid for unmounted razor strops, but I think that has more to do with keeping the leather supple than cleaning or lubricating for sharpening.

Great link, thanks!

[Stewie Simpson]

Perhaps Stewart can set us straight, but I think that chromium oxide stick is just chromium oxide in a wax base. Heating some up in mineral spirits or whatever will dissolve the wax will get that brew which I agree will be much easier to apply than the crayon. Stewart, what do you use to dissolve it?

Pete

Pete; the process you describe never happened.

https://www.workshopheaven.com/chrom...ide-paste.html

[Tony Zaffuto]

I find putting a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil on the leather does a fine job of disolving my stick of LV green compound on the leather.

[andy bessette]

...Where might I get something more like the tooling leather that you're using here?....

McMaster-Carr.
https://www.mcmaster.com/8706K58

[Andrew Pitonyak]

While we're on the subject of strops, I am curious about the leather that you are using. I found some scraps of suede at my local hobby store and tried to make a strop out of that stuff, but the "fuzzy" side is veryusfuzzy, making for a very uneven, bumpy surface. Where might I get something more like the tooling leather that you're using here? And can it be gotten in small quantities?

Thanks in advance for helping a baby Neanderthal.

I live near a tandy leather store (see https://www.tandyleather.com/en/)

I bought a large piece (about $50 ish, I don't really remember). Thicker is more expensive. The leather has a rough side and a smooth side. Note that you can also purchase smaller pieces.

As an example, see this:
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/cate...-bends-bellies

I just cut off what I want to use. I told them what I wanted to do with it and I have some vegetable tanned (I think they called it) as opposed to some kind of chemical that they said could cause issues with my tools longer term (rust??).

[Jim Koepke]

Interesting the Tormek PA70 paste, on Amazon and ebay, lists this specification:

Abrasive Averages 3 Macrons

Anyone know how big a Macron might be?

The Chromium Oxide paste linked in Stewie's post has this in the specifications:

Chromium Oxide (Cr2O3 ) is a superfine, 0.3 micron, polycrystalline abrasive

Is the particle size really different by a factor of 10?

One of my green bars came from a lapidary shop. (think gem and mineral shop)

The other bar came with an oilstone purchase.

jtk

[Pete Taran]

In typical Amazon fashion, it's a typo. The paste has particles 3 microns in size. 3 microns is about 8000 grit.

https://www.tormek.com/uk/en/accesso...ning-compound/

https://www.gessweincanada.com/category-s/11328.htm

[Jim Koepke]

In typical Amazon fashion, it's a typo. The paste has particles 3 microns in size. 3 microns is about 8000 grit.

https://www.tormek.com/uk/en/accesso...ning-compound/

https://www.gessweincanada.com/category-s/11328.htm

Which begs the question of the paste Stewie linked, is it actually 0.3 micron? Could that be a numeric typo?

Okay, it looks like the Amazon and ebay listing may have two typos unless macron is a tenth of a micron. My Websters says a macron is a dash used over vowels to indicate a long sound.

Found this with a little searching:

Chromium Oxide.png

Thems be small particles.

jtk