Thread: Fire Ash II

Food for thought from a former smoker (yeah gentlemen, I'm still going at it and way over the hump):
-Tobacco ash contains tar that will color some materials and in any case is greasy, tacky and not so nice.
-It also contains nicotine. Now this drug is weird. If you inhale it, you're fine, but ingesting it may kill you.
I don't know if I'd want either on any of my razors.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Food for thought from a former smoker (yeah gentlemen, I'm still going at it and way over the hump):
-Tobacco ash contains tar that will color some materials and in any case is greasy, tacky and not so nice.
-It also contains nicotine. Now this drug is weird. If you inhale it, you're fine, but ingesting it may kill you.
I don't know if I'd want either on any of my razors.

Same is true for chrome oxide, at least the chapstick-tube CO I've been using. But if it'll make you happier I'll burn some oak in my grill and use that. The main impetus for using tobacco ash is it really does make an incredible silver polish. It's been used like this for centuries; and I use it to keep my silver spigots shiny. Wood ash doesn't have this reputation for some reason.

MP, it's not about keeping me happy, it's about keeping you alive. I guess you could use cigar ash if you used alcohol to clean the razor WELL after polishing but I'd be careful.

Let see, I have some Cuban cigars coming from a friend, hmmm. This should be interesting to try.

Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Food for thought from a former smoker (yeah gentlemen, I'm still going at it and way over the hump):

Good for you Ilija, stick to it.
Pretty soon you'll be able to taste your food better and smell things in the air that are currently only in your memory, not to mention breath easier.
Hang in there. you deserve it!

X

Originally Posted by xman

Good for you Ilija, stick to it.
Pretty soon you'll be able to taste your food better and smell things in the air that are currently only in your memory

Which may not be such a blessing, living in Toronto In any case thanks for the encouragement bro

Alan, your post about grabbing some ash from the fireplace when your dad wasn't looking really cracked me up.

Now, all this talk of ash on linen raises a few questions for me, in no particular order:

1. So it's not gospel that a sharpening agent on a hanger will produce rounding?

2. Do you think chrome oxide on linen would be a bad idea? It's finer than that white TI paste, so why not?

3. How bout cigar ash. It's the only kind I have around here, ever since the city declared our wood stove not up to code and made us remove it.

Originally Posted by dylandog

... the city declared our wood stove not up to code and made us remove it.

fing . bads!

Originally Posted by dylandog

1. So it's not gospel that a sharpening agent on a hanger will produce rounding?

No, any more than stropping will cause rounding. Lots of hangers were pasted back in the day, take a look at the strop section of Lynn's DVD, he's got a lot of old strops with pasted linen. The real danger of pasted hanging strops is overhoning - the 18-20 inch stroke can remove a *lot* of metal in a hurry. Also, this can quickly cause odd blade shapes if you strop isn't completely flat (and lots of strops aren't). I've got a hanger pasted with flexcut gold and boron carbide that I use on my knives and the occasional razor, and it's an incredibly quick hone.

Originally Posted by dylandog

2. Do you think chrome oxide on linen would be a bad idea? It's finer than that white TI paste, so why not?

Chrome oxide may be finer than TI white, but it's also faster. See point 1 above.

Originally Posted by dylandog

3. How bout cigar ash. It's the only kind I have around here, ever since the city declared our wood stove not up to code and made us remove it.

We've been talking about using cigar ash in this thread, it's been used for hundreds of years as a fine abrasive for polishing silver and other items. There's some concern about the tars gumming up your razor, and the effects of the residual nicotine. My biggest concern is the smell - I'm not sure I want to smell stale cigar ashes first thing every morning. You may also be able to use newspaper ash, besides the ash the ink the newspapers use is also a mild, fine abrasive (you can put a nice polish on a razor by stropping it on newsprint).

Originally Posted by mparker762

We've been talking about using cigar ash in this thread...

Sorry, I was following this thread regularly til two days ago, and when I came back to it today I somehow missed all the cigar talk initiated by Dennis. Well I think it sounds great.

Originally Posted by mparker762

My biggest concern is the smell - I'm not sure I want to smell stale cigar ashes first thing every morning. You may also be able to use newspaper ash, besides the ash the ink the newspapers use is also a mild, fine abrasive (you can put a nice polish on a razor by stropping it on newsprint).

The newspaper's a good idea. On the other hand I'm not too worried about the smell of cigar ashes. It's the cigar butt that really stinks, not so much the ashes at least in my experience. In fact I find if you get the butt out of the house as soon as your cigar is extinguished, there's no real next-day stench to speak of. For that matter I wonder if there's any gumminess in the ashes, as opposed to the butt...