Stropping Compound

[Logan]

Awhile back I bought a well thought of leather two sided strop, one side rough and one side hard. The seller recommended green compound and said silver was overkill. Now I'm reading from Dave Martell and hearing from Alex at Outdoors55 that the green is very substandard. Alex recommends a high quality diamond 3 micron and 1 micron, the use of both. He sure seems to get great edges with little effort. So I'm thinking of cleaning my strop of the green and using 50% Tech Diamond Tools diamond paste, 3 micron on the rough side and 1 micron on the hard side. Any thoughts?

 

[mockit]

I'd stick with what you've got personally. Cleaning off the compound does not sound like fun. I'd venture to say the gains will be somewhere between not dramatic and marginal. Maybe after using up some of the green compound, you can just apply diamonds over it? If you want to use diamonds you could also get a relatively inexpensive microfiber or cork strop and just have another option to experiment with. The only compound I have and use is the 1-micron Gunny Juice. I use it more for bringing back an edge / maintenance than I do for deburring. It has more bite than you'd think.

https://bernalcutlery.com/collections/strops-compounds

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

You have to remember that Alex sharpens a lot of different steels and CrO (green) will be quite ineffective on a lot of them. You won't hear me arguing against diamond but I will also say that for my simple carbons I just use the Bernal compound listed by @mockit. I have diamond but use that on my high-alloy steels.

 

[Rangen]

A lot of the green compound available, sold in waxy sticks, is substandard, as I understand it. That Bernal stuff looks like a different beast, probably much much better.

I stopped using green compound early on, because my strops were aimed at both carbon steel kitchen knives, and exotic-steel pocketknives, so I went to diamond or CBN. 4 micron on one side, 8 on the other. The purpose was really deburring, though, not the fabled "hair-whittling edge," which Is not useful for anything I use knives for.

Now I do final deburring on very fine stones, with occasional resort to an unpasted strop, and my diamond-on-basswood pasted strops tend to languish.

I know there's a video out there about how to clean green compound off of a strop; it didn't seem too hard. I don't remember how he did it, though.

 

[Logan]

You have to remember that Alex sharpens a lot of different steels and CrO (green) will be quite ineffective on a lot of them. You won't hear me arguing against diamond but I will also say that for my simple carbons I just use the Bernal compound listed by @mockit. I have diamond but use that on my high-alloy steels.

The compound mentioned by mockit is 1 micron diamond.

 

[Tea_Hills]

I've used green compound, and a variety of different diamond pastes as strop compound. The diamond compounds all work pretty well but for ease of use and effectiveness I like the tech diamond .5 micron spray on my rough strop. Good at burr removal and I touch up both carbon and 'supersteels' such as z-wear on it as soon as I lose a shaving sharp edge. Works well.

 

[SwampDonkey]

I use 2 micron diamond from @TokushuKnife that I'm quite happy with.

 

[mockit]

@Logan He was referring to the green compound sold by Bernal in the link. It is probably much higher quality than run-of-the-mill "green compound." I remember speaking to them about it months ago, and they echoed that sentiment. However, I linked you because the last time I was geeking out on strops, I almost bought one of those rubberized cork ones.

 

[esoo]

So I know we are a bunch of enablers here, but you have to figure out where strops fit for you (as many people use them differently)

Try this: take a knife and sharpen it to the stone you'd use before a strop. Slice your choice of paper. Now strop it. Slice the same paper. Is there a difference? If so the strop and compound are doing there job.

I use 1u diamond paste and a buffalo leather strop. I don't like the strop (because of its a on a thin base I don't like) but I can do the test mentioned above and it is a noticable difference.

 

[Logan]

A lot of the green compound available, sold in waxy sticks, is substandard, as I understand it. That Bernal stuff looks like a different beast, probably much much better.

I stopped using green compound early on, because my strops were aimed at both carbon steel kitchen knives, and exotic-steel pocketknives, so I went to diamond or CBN. 4 micron on one side, 8 on the other. The purpose was really deburring, though, not the fabled "hair-whittling edge," which Is not useful for anything I use knives for.

Now I do final deburring on very fine stones, with occasional resort to an unpasted strop, and my diamond-on-basswood pasted strops tend to languish.

I know there's a video out there about how to clean green compound off of a strop; it didn't seem too hard. I don't remember how he did it, though.

There is more than one video on how to clean a strop. Alex scraped it off with a wide box cutter razor.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

The compound mentioned by mockit is 1 micron diamond.

Like I said, I was referring to the Bernal one he linked.

 

[Logan]

Like I said, I was referring to the Bernal one he linked.

Got it. I didn't see it at first. Why use that at $19 when there is high percentage diamond available at reasonable cost?

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Got it. I didn't see it at first. Why use that at $19 when there is high percentage diamond available at reasonable cost?

Really just because not all compounds are the same. There are some real junk diamond compounds out there. Meaning they can have a wide range of actual grist sizes in them, very little grit in them, the compounds can be nasty and not spread well, etc. Quality compounds will address all of those things.

The little bottle I got from Bernal is good stuff and really lasts so it will serve me for a long time.

Also, for diamond, I would likely go spray. The compounds and emulsions can dry out strops and you spend a lot of the carrying agent volume. But, if all I could find were good compounds or emulsions, I wouldn't let it bother me.

 

[Logan]

What does "carrying agent volume" mean?

 

[Delat]

I used random green compound for a while and IME it was fine for “normal” steels” (i.e. not high alloy). As mentioned above, decide why you’re stropping or what you want stropping to achieve.

With the paper-cutting test, cuts were indeed smoother after stropping with the green stuff on cowhide so I’d say it worked just fine for cleaning up an edge after deburring (I deburr via edge-leading on the stone).

I later picked up a higher quality buffalo strop loaded with 1 micron diamonds and the only real difference for my purposes is that it will slightly refresh a lightly worn edge once or twice before real sharpening, which the green compound couldn’t do. So it’s handy for high-carbon knives that I use often if I don’t feel like getting the stones out. But I wouldn’t really place that high on the priority list if your budget is tight - it was more of a curiosity for me and I felt like experimenting.

Here’s a video I made showing the touch up effect with the diamonds.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

I have a stick of the cheap green compound. it is "okay". at best.

I don't typically strop my kitchen knives. I only use it for my hunting and outdoor knives. my pocket knives, I use a diamond emulsion I have wiped on the sheath for a some survey equipement. I leave it in my office desk. it clearly cuts better than the green stuff..which I think is more of a rouge for polishing wheels.

 

[mike59]

To remove the compound from the strop the best thing that I've found is to use a metal putty knife - 1 - 1 1/2 inch wide - and hold it mostly perpendicular to the strop and rub it back and forth using short strokes. Hold it close to the end to keep it firm and voila - stropping compound removed. Sounds harder than it is - really quite simple. I've never tried any of the mineral oil or other concoction methods ... sounds to messy to me when it isn't needed.

As far as reusing it with diamond paste or spray ... personally I wouldn't since you'll never actually get all of the compound out so you'd have a contaminated grit rating ... unless you know that you're going to be using lower grit diamond than the previously used waxy compound.

I've also been playing with diamond emulsions - Gunny Juice to be specific. I've been trying it on bass wood - verdict is out but I think I'm liking it. Also going to try it on leather. I've used CBN on Kangaroo leather with a KME system for pocket knives and had good results with that there so I expect I'll end up with good results with the diamond on leather/bass wood for kitchen knives eventually. Still getting used to using it effectively.

For what it's worth - I've found the white compound (AlOx vs CrOx green) more effective and that's what I use. Just a personal preference and since I've made my own leather and bass wood strops the cost is not an issue and I'm not blowing 20+ dollars on every strop.

Hope that's helpful.

M

 

[dabes]

A hairdryer/heat gun will make the cleaning process go much faster, if you really wanna deep clean it soak it in some hot rubbing alcohol to break down the waxes before scraping (I used an expired CC last time I did this).

I tried using the 25% TDT 8k and 14k on leather for stropping and in my cases I couldn't push cut paper towels afterwards I had to go to bare leather to get a nice clean apex. So imo the 50% might be way too fast for stropping.

 

[Logan]

To remove the compound from the strop the best thing that I've found is to use a metal putty knife - 1 - 1 1/2 inch wide - and hold it mostly perpendicular to the strop and rub it back and forth using short strokes. Hold it close to the end to keep it firm and voila - stropping compound removed. Sounds harder than it is - really quite simple. I've never tried any of the mineral oil or other concoction methods ... sounds to messy to me when it isn't needed.

As far as reusing it with diamond paste or spray ... personally I wouldn't since you'll never actually get all of the compound out so you'd have a contaminated grit rating ... unless you know that you're going to be using lower grit diamond than the previously used waxy compound.

I've also been playing with diamond emulsions - Gunny Juice to be specific. I've been trying it on bass wood - verdict is out but I think I'm liking it. Also going to try it on leather. I've used CBN on Kangaroo leather with a KME system for pocket knives and had good results with that there so I expect I'll end up with good results with the diamond on leather/bass wood for kitchen knives eventually. Still getting used to using it effectively.

For what it's worth - I've found the white compound (AlOx vs CrOx green) more effective and that's what I use. Just a personal preference and since I've made my own leather and bass wood strops the cost is not an issue and I'm not blowing 20+ dollars on every strop.

Hope that's helpful.

M

Gunny Juice seems well respected and was compared to a couple of others and came out on top by Never A Dull Moment on youtube.

 

[Logan]

A hairdryer/heat gun will make the cleaning process go much faster, if you really wanna deep clean it soak it in some hot rubbing alcohol to break down the waxes before scraping (I used an expired CC last time I did this).

I tried using the 25% TDT 8k and 14k on leather for stropping and in my cases I couldn't push cut paper towels afterwards I had to go to bare leather to get a nice clean apex. So imo the 50% might be way too fast for stropping.

Now I for sure don't know what to do. I was thinking about the 50%. Burrfection's diamond pastes are 20%. I was leaning toward Outdoor55- knifepointgear's custom diamond paste but he looks to be out of business. The gunny juice is a bit pricey for me.

 

[esoo]

Now I for sure don't know what to do. I was thinking about the 50%. Burrfection's diamond pastes are 20%. I was leaning toward Outdoor55- knifepointgear's custom diamond paste but he looks to be out of business. The gunny juice is a bit pricey for me.

I use the 1u Burrfection paste and it is working fine for me. The leather of his strops of fine, but I'd wish for a thicker base.

 

[Desert Rat]

Awhile back I bought a well thought of leather two sided strop, one side rough and one side hard. The seller recommended green compound and said silver was overkill. Now I'm reading from Dave Martell and hearing from Alex at Outdoors55 that the green is very substandard. Alex recommends a high quality diamond 3 micron and 1 micron, the use of both. He sure seems to get great edges with little effort. So I'm thinking of cleaning my strop of the green and using 50% Tech Diamond Tools diamond paste, 3 micron on the rough side and 1 micron on the hard side. Any thoughts?

Outdoors 55 on youtube? Hope he has learned how to use a steel and what it does. I tried to help him but got kicked. Really odd...

 

[Logan]

A hairdryer/heat gun will make the cleaning process go much faster, if you really wanna deep clean it soak it in some hot rubbing alcohol to break down the waxes before scraping (I used an expired CC last time I did this).

I tried using the 25% TDT 8k and 14k on leather for stropping and in my cases I couldn't push cut paper towels afterwards I had to go to bare leather to get a nice clean apex. So imo the 50% might be way too fast for stropping.

I read that too high a concentration of diamonds in the paste won't spread good enough. Maybe 25% is still too high. Burrfection's once again is 20%. I'm leaning toward the 20% TDT. Some complain it hardens up and can't be dispensed?? So dabes it seems that your info likely prevented me from making a mistake going with 50%.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Gunny Juice seems well respected and was compared to a couple of others and came out on top by Never A Dull Moment on youtube.

Shawn Houston is a big fan.

Outdoors 55 on youtube? Hope he has learned how to use a steel and what it does. I tried to help him but got kicked. Really odd...

Alex is an interesting dude.

 

[TokushuKnife]

I use 2 micron diamond from @TokushuKnife that I'm quite happy with.

That is certainly our best seller- brings back a very useable edge with a bit of bite

 

[Deadboxhero]

Gunny Juice seems well respected and was compared to a couple of others and came out on top by Never A Dull Moment on youtube.

Gunny Juice has been the best I've used so far.

CPM 15V at 65rc

Each of those dark spots is a carbide at 87rc at 1-2um in size.

This was an incredible edge from Gunny Juice.

If it could make an edge like this on an extreme material it should be able to eat everything.