Where to get Honing compound ?

[Francois]

Does anyone know if I can find honing compound at Canadian tire or any hardware store in Canada ? I live in a small town with no good woodworking supply store. If not who sells it for cheap on internet ?
Thanks!

[AlArchie]

Check your local hardware store for polishing compound in the same department with wire wheels, cloth wheels etc. They should have it is sets of three diferent compounds; white, black and red or brown. Either one will work just fine. the black is the coarsest, the white next, then brown and red. The red is called jewelers' rough and is all that I use on my strops. The brown stuff is usually called tripoli, the black carborundum and the white aluminum oxide.

If they don't have any of the compounds check an auto supply for valve grinding compound.....also comes in several grades.

Al

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

These folks are in Canada, Leather Strops

Dave

[riverwood-dan]

leevalley.ca sells green honing compound.

[Claude]

Here's the direct link to the Dan mentions:
Veritas® Honing Compound - Lee Valley Tools

I use this one. The one bar will last you several lifetimes. I think in ten years, I've maybe used up 1/8 inch off one end...

Claude

[Francois]

Thanks for the tips.

Anyone knows if this kind of stuff would do a decent job as a hand stropping compound???

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

There is also stuff for soft metal I don't know witch one would be best.

[Claude]

I haven't tried it, but I think it would depend on how much of it is cleaning compound and how much is polishing compound.

Claude

[Dicky]

You can't go wrong with Lee Valley's stuff. It is a mix of chromium and aluminum oxide. I have used it successfully for years and as Claude said, one bar will last a lifetime. I have even melted it with a small amount of tallow to get it to adhere to a new leather strop. Saves a lot of time. It is available on line. The Canadian Tire product looks more like a chrome polish for cars to me.

[Francois]

Yeah, I'll probably go for that it's just a shame to pay three times the price just because of shipping. oh well...

[Claude]

I was doing a little searching on the subject and found this:
Sandpaper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Scroll down a ways and there is a table that shows the grit size of various sandpapers up to 2500 grit. Then I discovered this:
Stropping/Lapping

The author's premise is that honing properly is best and any stropping thereafter dulls the tool! The site is quite lengthy, but a good read. I may have to re-think my sharpening process.

Claude