Thread: Does anyone make their own stropping paste?

Just wondering if anyone here makes their own stropping paste? If you do, what do you use to add to the abrasive dust. I have been adding Neatsfoot oil to some diamond dust to then use on my leather strop but the diamond dust settles out on the bottom of the bottle if I don't use it often or shake it up. Is there something better that you would recommend?

I am about to make another leather paddle strop and hope to make some paste using some saphire dust and would like to try something else besides the neatsfoot oil.

Cheers

Ed.

I've never heard of someone doing this before. Most of the general products available are pretty cheap and work really good.

But if you come up with some dynamite product and sell it and become the next Ray Kroc remember us.

The closest I come to this is buying the pigments from kremer and mixing them with 50/50 mineral oil/rubbing alcohol. I don't think I would recommend doing that for applying to leather though. I apply to balsa.

Hi, thanks for the replies, it's not about saving any money but convenience, I regually drive to a business which is near a gemstore and they sell diamond and saphire dust for the polishing of gemstones, so I figuered why not, since the only way I can get stopping paste is to order it from overseas or online. We don't have any places nearby which sell it.

Straight razors shops are not common where I live in Australia so if I want it, I have to order it from somewhere online anyway. So far I made up 2 solutions of 50K and 100K diamond dust and some water to spray on Balsa paddles and also 1 of Neatsfoot oil and 100K for the leather strop. The diamond dust stropping does make the blades very sharp but they feel a bit scratchy if you guys know what I mean. So I want to make up a Saphire dust one to see if it will leave a smoother edge on the blades due to Saphire having a different cutting edge on the crystals. I don't know what effect mineral oil or glycerine will have on leather, as they are two options I had considered using, which is also why I was wondering if someone had any success making their own on this forum.

Cheers

Ed.

Are you making up whole bottles of the stuff? If some no matter what solution you use the particles are eventually settle to the bottom of the bottle as you have found.

When I use powders I normally just mix with either an oil or rubbing alcohol. I like the rubbing alcohol better as it dries quicker. I also only make up enough paste to coat the strop and keep the rest of the powder in powder form.

For linen strops, the less than .01mm gemstone at a very small % addition would be good to add to a 18th Century Military Blanco for use on cross belts and gaiters. ( Yes I have done it! and used a 10% of all the ingredients, It need a bit more tallow, the original was made with soft soap.)
Here are the originals and my comments


The following if from Roy Najecki, of the 40th Foot:

From: Standing Orders, Forms of Returns, Reports, Entries, etc. of the Queen's Dragoons Guards; 1795 -

"Take 6 pounds of the finest pipe-clay, pound it very small, put it in a tub, and put to it about 5 gallons of cold water. Let it remain for two or three days, stirring it now and then. Then take 6 ounces of gum dragon, and put it into 4 quarts of boiling water, and cover it up close for two or three days. When the gum is well dissolved, take a fine hair sieve, and strain it into the pipe-clay, and keep stirring the pipe-clay well all the time you are doing this. Then take half an ounce of stone blue, and dissolve it well amongst your colouring (this gives a clear gloss to the belts). Let it all remain one day longer, and it will be fit for use, putting it on lightly and evenly with a sponge."

From: The Discipline of the Light Horse by Capt. Hinde, 1778 (pg 559) -

"A Receipt for the White Belts. Take 1 ½ lb of Pipe-clay, 3 Quarts of Water, ¼ lb of Best Glue, ¼ lb of White Soap, Boil the Soap and Glue first, till dissolved, then Mix it with the Pipe-Clay, and Boil all together for a Quarter of an Hour; when Cold put it on a with a Sponge in the usual manner, and when Dry Rub it with a Glass-Bottle."

All these ingredients: pipe-clay, gum dragon, and stone blue, are still available. Pipe-clay is the white material used to make porcelain in your sink or toilet and is commercially known as Kaolin. Pottery supply firms sell kaolin. Harness makers know gum dragon by that name but it is sold as Gum Tragacanth. This mucilage substance is used to burnish the edges of harness leather. It is available from The Leather Factory, Inc.

(1-800-472-3306, item #2264) and other leather craft firms. Stone blue is hydrated copper sulfate and can be found in the plumbing dept of home centers such as Home Depot. It is used to eliminate roots in septic pipes. There are several brands and they vary in purity. Root Destroyer brand (made by Scotch Corp 214-943-4605) is 99% Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate and costs about $9 per pound. Yes, it looks like blue stones, and they can be easily crushed into a powder.

Buff faced ( They used a buff color for cross belts and gaiters) units often would use pipe-clay with a buff tint. The tinting agent, buff ochre, is still available from jewelry manufacturing supply firms.

I've worked up the first recipe and tried it, but my results didn't meet my expectations. Perhaps my kaolin was not white enough, and the pipeclay came out very watery. So I put that project aside for when I have more time.
I later finished the experiment and added tallow and a proprietary fine abrasive. the linens are not as aggressive as the Grey TI strop dressing but are very smooth on the order of a ChromeOx or finer. TI used diamond and CBN to make the hard to get grey tube dressings.
__________________________________________________ ___________________________________
( a comment posted in rebuttal)
"""Ich Dien!
Posted by B. Jones, RWFIA at 6:01 PM
1 comment:
coldstreamer said...
Stone Blue is not copper sulphate, but in fact Lapis Lazuli. The artificially produced stone blue (Ultramarine) used to be commercially manufactured in the UK as "reckitts blue" for whitening laundry. it is present as blue flecks in washing powder and is used to colour correct white ball clays used to manufacture tiles and sanitary ware. It is now made by Holliday pigments in Hull, UK. See the wikipedia article on ultramarine for chemistry.

Analyis of clays used to make clay pipes seem to show to it be a white ball-clay, rather than kaolin, which woudl have been referred to as china-clay, not pipe-clay. The clays used, used to be found between coal measures, but in the later 17trh and 18th centuries theey were mined from surface deposits. The closest modern analog would be a pure, iron-free white ball clay such as WBB Minerals "pure HV" mined in Newton Abbot in the UK. This white ball-clay is stickier than kaolin, which seems to need more gum."" """
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________
And the later experiments have worked out well. I used Mrs Stewarts Laundry Blueing ( Vintage)!
~Richard

What about adding the dust to bees wax or a hand cream as a base to add to the strop
Just a thought

beeswax and neetsfoot or possibly mineral oil should work as a base for abrasives.. i worked with olive oil as i didnt have coconut oil, neetsfoot, or mineral oil..

some super cerium oxide, or crox, or feox should all work well... im sure there are many other abrasives that would work as well..

after all this time im surprised that more experimenting hasn't been done with ash as an abrasive.. some ash is supposed to be a good source of silica abrasive..straw ash is supposed to be good.. afdavis used woodash.. and tobacco ash has long been used as a metal polish..

Originally Posted by Castel33

Are you making up whole bottles of the stuff? If some no matter what solution you use the particles are eventually settle to the bottom of the bottle as you have found.

When I use powders I normally just mix with either an oil or rubbing alcohol. I like the rubbing alcohol better as it dries quicker. I also only make up enough paste to coat the strop and keep the rest of the powder in powder form.

Hi, no just making up a small quantity at a time (about 5ml). I was also thinking about using a silicon grease or heavy oil, anything to keep the dust in suspension. I know it can be done as the commercially made pastes are available in small tubes so shaking would not be possible so obviously whatever they use dosen't allow the diamond dust to settle out, just don't know what they would use as the suspension material. I guess that I will just have to experiment till I am happy with the result and hopefully it won't damage the leather long term.

Actually I might try what "ezpc" and "substance" have suggested, some beeswax and some parrafin/mineral oil mix to keep it squisshy, together they should be thick enough to stop the dust settling out.

In lapidary work they don't use "Sapphire" but use alumina instead which is ground very fine. It comes in all kinds of grits. Levigated alumina is the choice cause it has better qualities and is considered a good cheap all around finisher. Cerium oxide is the cats meow for ultimate polishing especially hard minerals.lapidary shops also sell various other compounds and combinations usually in bars but not always. Just make sure whatever you get is pure and you know it's makeup size wise.

Sapphire dust will be just that. No xtls cause they are all ground up.
You don't live near the opal fields do you?