Thread: Abrasive pastes on daily strop

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

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.

Neil: just out of interest: what's the hardness of razor steel on the MOHS scale? On the forums here we usually refer to Rockwell hardness when measuring steel hardness.

Originally Posted by Domino

AFDavis11, in your description, I noticed that you don't add any oil or fat. Is that correct?

Correct, my apologies for missing this question.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

AFDavis.... was that lead from a No. 2 pencil or?

Kees..... did you find that the locksmith graphite had any large pieces that needed to be worked out first?

I do like the idea of working a fine abrasive in and then removing a majority of it leaving only the finest grains ( hopefully).

Thanks guys,

Yes, sir. I use a number two pencil. I have found that charcoal pencils seem ineffective. I must clarify though that #2 pencil is used out of convienence.

Originally Posted by Morty

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

RazorCentral - Home of the straight razor

Originally Posted by Kees

@ AFDavis11:

First impression: this works a treat!

Kees,

Excellent. I assume this means you tried it and it seemed to help. It sounds like your on your way to perfecting this process. Congrats!

Originally Posted by Kees

Neil: just out of interest: what's the hardness of razor steel on the MOHS scale? On the forums here we usually refer to Rockwell hardness when measuring steel hardness.

Hello Kees, its a bit hard to be specific for a number of reasons, one being the differences in razor steels, whether due to composition or hardening treatment. For example, using the Rockwell scale:

Wade & Butcher: from 57 - 59
Puma: 61 - 62
Hart: 63

The hardness of some steels on the MOHS scale:

knife blade: 5.5
quality steel file: 6.5
hardened tool steel: 7.5

I would say that knife steel is too soft and hardened tool steel is too hard. A file is probably too brittle, too so I would imagine (I don't actually know) that we are looking at a figure of 6 or a bit under.

The trouble with the MOHS scale is that it is not linear and it is hard to extrapolate figures from it. It isn't based on any form of mathematical progression at all - it is purely arbitrary and was invented to classify minerals by hardness, not steels. When it was invented the hardest (diamond) and softest (talc) minerals known at the time were used, and the others fell into place according to which could scratch which without being scratched itself by the thing it was scratching.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Kees,

Excellent. I assume this means you tried it and it seemed to help. It sounds like your on your way to perfecting this process. Congrats!

It works really great. I applied it onto my Tony Miller red latigo strop. The latigo has plenty oils to hold the graphite.

I have now used a buffalo leather strop impregnated with graphite and can confirm that there is something going on there that is making the edge keen - but I'm not sure what!

When the graphite was first applied (microfine type) and well-rubbed into the strop to cause it to break down into finer particles, the strop was pretty loaded, but after rubbing it well with a rag and stropping 30 - 40 razors on it plus my own daily shaver it is now well-worked in and leaves very, very little residue on a razor after stropping.

The first thing I noticed was that it had a cleaning action on the strop itself - it has had a cosmetically pleasing effect on the strop surface, and the strop does not become loaded with gunk anymore. Perhaps that is due to the fact that graphite is a type of lubricant? I don't really know.

The sharpening effect seems to be very subtle - possibly because this is pure, soft, graphite rather than graphite from pencil lead which contains harder abrasives. It also seems to depend on the razor - maybe the type of steel is a contributary factor? Contrary to what I thought, there seems to be more of an effect with modern harder steel than old, somewhat softer steel.

I still have some reservations that the effect is due to any abrasive action from the graphite, as it is so much lower on the Mohs scale than steel. My feeling at the moment is that it has reduced the draw of the strop - made it quicker, slicker - and that this is having an effect on the edge - especially as more laps are in order due to the reduced draw.

Whatever the reason, I will continue to use it on my buffalo strop.

Regards,
Neil

Neil,

I wonder if the Water Buffalo being as grainy as it is, which to me is the primary reason for the draw with that strop, presenting a more refined feel than a Latigo or something a little slipperier.... It would seem that the graphite is settling in.

Thanks,

Lynn

The graphite has certainly settled in, Lynn.

It was getting a little shiny with all the stropping it has had and was beginning to look like latigo, and had quite a bit of gunk caught-up in the pores. Rubbing the graphite in with a rag has cleaned all that off and made it look even slicker, a bit like old horse-shell.

It's hard to explain, but you can 'see' that it is slicker than before - the graphite must have filled-in the pores but it doesn't look plastered with graphite - you have to really look close and/or rub it to tell that the graphite is there.

Regards,
Neil