Thread: Knife sharpning - Leather Strops

Just shouted myself on from AllyEx so cheap, question is, what polishing paste are people using, thought of JBs but that stuffs 50+$ not much left so being tight thought of valve grinding paste.

valve grinding paste is just fine. Try to get a fine grade!

Another vote for valve grinding paste

Flitz. comes in a toothpaste type tube. bloody awesome on stainless but in the past pre-injury i used it on my 1940's straight razor ( can i still say straight anymore or do i have to choose one of 90000 genders?
)

As already posted, fine valve grinding paste or Flitz if going for real fine finish. Leather on it’s own will also do the job, just like finishing a cut throat razor. One of my great-uncles was a barber, he could sharpen just about anything so well you never even knew you’d cut yourself. You learned to be careful with his gear.

I've tried Brasso and car polish - both worked. Problem is, they also dried the leather and made it crack, so not using the right stuff could be false economy.

Look up green rouge.


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I use autosol but have used ajax mixed with dish detergent as well both work

The green polishing compound sticks

The only things I would dress leather with are: palm oil (the skin oils from the palm of your hand); neatsfoot oil. In a pinch butter or tallow - which may go rank, or coconut oil.

I wouldn't put any grinding paste on leather.
If it has a fabric backing/strap then you can impregnate that with baking-soda toothpaste as a fine abrasive. Strops are really for keening an edge, not sharpening which is what a grinding paste will do.

You could use your grinding paste with balistol, it is meant to maintain leather souple and stop it cracking.
You can make your home grinding paste by burning bits of sand paper of the grit you want in tin pot with meth. This is a trick from homebrew357 for making fine laping paste for his barrels.
Mixe the ashes you get with balistol and see how it goes.

Originally Posted by Friwi

You could use your grinding paste with balistol, it is meant to maintain leather souple and stop it cracking.
You can make your home grinding paste by burning bits of sand paper of the grit you want in tin pot with meth. This is a trick from homebrew357 for making fine laping paste for his barrels.
Mixe the ashes you get with balistol and see how it goes.

good reply I have a number of hand forged Japanese knives including my main hunting knife - I just bought a $2 3 inch wide belt from a St Johns shop its very good quality leather - use auto sol on leather belt once I have stoned the knife and it does the job very well - but I dont go silly with the leather strop maybe 6-8 rubs either side and softly