Thread: Abrasive pastes on daily strop

@randydance:

It is a very fine graphite dust in a little soft plastic bottle. If you hold the bottle with the nozzle pointing upwards and you pinch the bottle slightly the graphite is blown out with the air like a mist.

You would not expect hard particles because the graphite is used as a lubricant, hard particles would damage the moving parts inside the lock.

Kees...thanks, I have and use the same stuff for locks. I asked because of my experiments with rottenstone years ago. That needed to be processed in a electric spice mill first to break up the larger grains.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Kees...thanks, I have and use the same stuff for locks. I asked because of my experiments with rottenstone years ago. That needed to be processed in a electric spice mill first to break up the larger grains.

Randy - You can get microfine graphite that is very finely divided pure graphite - possibly the same stuff in locksmith puffer bottles. As it is a very loose-structured element and owes its 'slip' or lubricating quality to the layers fracturing easily and sliding over each other, I would imagine that just rubbing the powder into the strop surface would break it up finely enough.

It is also very soft - 1 to 2 on the MOHS hardness scale (chrome oxide is about 8 - 9, tin oxide is about 7, cerium oxide is about 6) so its polishing action would be - presumably - very fine.

Pencil lead seems to be predominantly graphite with carbon, clay, and binders. The graphite level varies with the 'hardness' rating of the pencil, eg an 'H' may have 63% graphite-carbon, 31% clay, a 'B' 71%/23% and a '2B' 74%/21%

Clay may contain iron/alumina/silica, but as it is a super-fine substance the particle size is probably around 2 microns. Depending on the type of silica to take just one element, it could be slightly softer or slightly harder than chrome oxide.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The list of the compounds used traditionally on strops can be found on the RazorCentral website.

Could you give us the URL for that Web site please? RazorCentral.com does not work.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Originally Posted by Morty

Could you give us the URL for that Web site please? RazorCentral.com does not work.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Morty - looks like the domain is up for sale, according to a whois lookup.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Morty

Could you give us the URL for that Web site please? RazorCentral.com does not work.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Here you go....

RazorCentral - Home of the straight razor

Originally Posted by randydance062449

There is still one abrasive that I want to try....... I have a bottle of ink that is now excess and used to be for refilling printer cartridges. I assume the black is a fine carbon.

I was considering applying the ink to a leather strop, working it in with a glass bottle and then letting it dry. Has anyone tried this?

Black ink jet printer ink is not going to be carbon based
the way India ink or Asian brush ink is.

You can test it by diluting a bit and then let it wick up a strip of
paper/ filter paper. If the ink wicks up and has stripes
of color it is not carbon soot based. Most ink-jet inks are a mix
of red purple and blue soluble inks in ethylene glycol.

Soot is easy to gather from a candle flame with some
aluminum foil held half way in the flame of a candle.
Soot from a candle will be micro carbon and wax.
Lamp black from older whale oil lamps and modern kerosene
and liquid paraffin lamps would act like a strop dressing helping
the leather in part because of the oil it contains.

Thanks Neil.

Thanks Tom.

So..... some sources for a microfine carbon are India ink or Asian brush ink,
Candle soot, lamp black from kerosene or parrafin lamps. There is also
the option of purchasing some lamp black. That I will have by the end
of the month. Perhaps most of these, except the candle soot( wax on paper?),
could be applied to a newspaper or leather paddle strop.
Worth a try!
If they are fine enough they could be used daily as Alan is doing.
Maybe another tool in the tool box.


Thanks guys,