Thread: Powdered Graphite

I have chalk on my linen right now but was thinking the graphite as a substitute.

But after reading the other thread it says use on leather? Which would you recommend being better, the leather or fabric?

I use it on the leather side per AFDavis11's method.

And so do I.

After reading the same thread on treating a daily strop, I tried drawing on the leather side with a number two pencil. It seemed to improve the performance. I've sinced cleaned the graphite off and applied a .05 micron allumina polish with good results.

I've got chalk on my linen pasted strop, it works very well.

A good way of applying fine rouges like that is to spray the strop with starch and then dust it with the powder. That also makes it quite easy to get the powder off again and the starch doesnt soak into the leather.

If you choose to use it, apply it to the linen and not the leather, at least the linen can be washed.

couldnt the leather be washed with a bit of lather and a brush?
draw can also be increased with a bit of lather on the leather, so i wouldnt worry too much about decreased draw. i'd only be worried about waxed leathers that might hold on to the graphite.

Dragging up an old post, but since I'm looking into this, I figured others might also.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Don't do it. It's a lubricant and will ruin your strop. The idea in stropping is to create some draw and dress the edge. The graphite will lube the strop and you will accomplish nothing and you'll probably never be able to get the stuff off the strop.

I have just started looking into stropping compounds and am looking for something simple (read inexpensive and works). I ended up running across this patent in the process:
Patent US1602437 - Razor-strop dressing - Google Patents
"the graphite will maintain the strop pliable and prevent cracking or breaking thereof," so someone at one time thought it actually helped the strop.
I also hear rumors of using glass as a hone, and even rumors of it working far better than expected.

For a good idea of how effective compounds are, I ended up running across this blog a couple days ago where a guy takes a blade with a couple notches out of it and puts it under the microscope:
Knife Sharpening Techniques: Global Boning Knife - Sharpening Progression

There are all kinds of patents for crazy things. The question is, have you ever seen such a product for sale? I suspect the answer is no. Also, what kind of a strop would you use it on? leather? Drying and cracking isn't an issue if the strop gets reasonable care and on cloth well, most older strops are kind of stiff cause they were loaded with chalk or similar. Seems like a product looking for use.

As far as the patents go, completely agree on crazy things. Wiper blades for glasses for example.

So far as I'm concerned, graphite is a non-reactive carbon lattice that is more liable to remove an electric charge or act like tiny carbon mallets on the blade than have any sort of grit to it. It is likely that it could fill in any imperfections in the blade temporarily until it was actually used. Key words there, "actually used."

While looking into the original question I found something far more interesting answer to the question, "What is really effective as a stropping compound," which was posted as a tangent to the original question.