[arbarnhart]

I bought a dirt cheap little buffing attachment for a drill; a couple of soft fiberous wheels that pretty much self destructed after very little use and 2 bars of compound - a white one and a ruddy brown one. They both work well for charging a leather strop. It isn't obvious which is supposed to be finer but it really doesn't seem to matter. I just figured I should give them a try before tossing them and the experience puts me with the crowd that says this is one product category where there really isn't a lot of difference between products.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have some white, green (chromium oxide) and the yellow flexcut ...I used the white years ago B.C. (before carving!) on bond paper and it works great, I now use mostly the green chromium oxide ...mostly because I have a big bar of it..ha ha, but it works fine, I also like the yellow flexcut whatever it is, however, I do believe it is finer.....not sure I can tell a lot of difference in any of them.....

[Thomp]

A feller i know bought a 45 colt auto and didnt like the factory finish being very frugal he bought a 5 pound bar of each kind of buffing compound, with a flap wheel & compound he polished the frame and slide to a mirror chrome finish then had it heat blued. it was beauriful. finish like butter.........

, i mentioned why did he need so much compound he said it was on sale, and next time i seen him he brought me a 2.5 lb bar of each... half of what he had bought.. im set for life as i got over 20 pounds of the stuff.

red green white tripolee black brown tan and many other colors i didnt know was available, but he was a metal urgest, so i guess there is some super fine grades...
+++
bob as to the red crokers cloth, I dont know if clothe color relates to grit size like compound?
i use 1000 wet dry grit for my scairy sharp method
. but I wouldnt use it unless my cutting edege was needing sharpening or reshaping, the wear from stone-oxide which is on the crokers cloth will in time wear out your blades, you should be able to get many honing's out of an edege before it needs reshaping-sharpening to remove the double bevel or the rounding of the cutting edege..

[Just Carving]

Thanks Thomp.

Up until recently, I only use the scary sharp method described for the first sharpening of the tools I made. Last week, I redid a 3/4" #3 gouge made from a file--I wasn't happy with the bevel and it wasn't cutting as well as it should have. I started with 400 grit, and worked back up to the 2000 grit. The gouge turned out great--it cuts like a dream now. Now I need to fix a 3/4" chisel--also made from a file. It has some nicks on the edge. I planned to do the same--400 grit to 2000 grit. Maybe I'll try the crocus cloth and see what happens. One way or the other-I should get it to out just as good if not better.

[mdallensr]

The tube of stropping compound you got with the John Dunkle knife is a new version of Yellowstone Gold. They are the best compunds I've tried so far, but the Flexcut gold that comes with their shaped strop is very good too. They suggest you don't mix the compounds, because the grit size is different. John Dunkle's compund is powdered and easier to apply to a strop. He says to let it get black and sticky and just add to it as necessary. He sells a strop with a curved edge to get the inside bevel of his curved knives, and an angle on the other edge to get V-tools. No commercial here, but when I find something that is noticeably better than what I'm using, I pass it on.