So I thought i was been all innovative and clever but....

So here i was thinking i had been a real innovative smart arse. I had grabbed an old seat belt and made a strop with it over the weekend (actually i made 4 :)).

I was going to post about it today but a quick search reveled it has already been done.....several time so im not an innovative smart arse :D

I do however have one question. With the absence of any more Cro Ox (ordered more now) i was keen to give it a try out. Rummaging about in my box of bits i came across some red coloured dremel polishing compound and proceeded to load up the least pretty of the strops (the first one i made) and to my surprise it seemed to work quite well !

I can't find much info on this polishing compound and the dremel site is next to useless. From what i can gather so far its some kind of jewelers rouge, is this iron oxide ? and does anyone have any idea where this stuff fits in, in terms of grit size ?

As always any info would be greatly appreciated :D

I've heard red rouge averages between 1.5 to .5 microns .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blistersteel

I've heard red rouge averages between 1.5 to .5 microns .

---

Hmm in theory then, stropping on dremel polishing compound should actually improve the edge of a blade coming off a Naniwa 12k. Which i believe is 1.5 micron.......at the very worst i can make it worse :)

Red rouge can contain aluminum oxide along with the iron oxide. I don't know how common that is. I have a 2 pound stick of red rouge from mcmaster carr that has both iron oxide and aluminum oxide, I guess someone decided they needed to have a type with a bit more cutting power.

All of that said, if you try the rouge on a piece of metal and you see nothing other than the faintest spider web scratches or nothing at all, it should do just fine.

Newspaper also makes a good strop.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Phrank

Newspaper also makes a good strop.

---

Silicon in the paper and some black emery in the ink.
~Richard

This is from the Dremel site:

Attachment 174392

Note the 'try it on a piece of scrap first' - good advice! Use your finest finish on the edge, look at it under mag noting the scratch pattern, use the dremel compound and look at the scratch pattern again. Do it a few times and you will see where - if at all - it fits into your honing regime.

Regards,
Neil

Make sure you get all that off before going to your clean leather :<0)

Classic jewelers rouge is iron oxide and it's pretty pure stuff. It's designed for polishing very soft metals like gold and silver and copper. However modern jewelers rouges comes in different compounds containing all sorts of interesting stuff. If you go to a lapidary supply or jeweler supply house you will see all kinds of rouges including some interesting stuff they won't even tell you the contents lying therein.

Interesting info thank you all :)

This stuff doesn't feel like 400 grit and the scratch pattern where I tried polishing a blade didn't look like 400 either but looks can be deciving :)

I was just going to scrap the strop I put it on but curiosity has got the better of me, so I'm going to do what Neil has suggested and hone up to a known grit and see what happens. If I can get any decent pics I'll post em up :)