[Greyhair]

I was having a lot of diificulty keeping stropping compound on my leather strop wheel. It kept flaking off. I do not know if anyone else has the problem but I think I may have come up with a solution. I was using the yellow compound most typically packaged with Flexcut tools. I took the yellow compound and used a cheese grater and made it into shavings. I did the same thing with some bees wax. I mixed it 5 parts compound to 1 part bees wax and melted it and poured it into an aluminum foil form and let it harden. The bees wax keeps it sticking to the leather much better and does not seem to have adversely impacted the polishing quality of the compound.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have been using the green chromium oxide and it seems to have a paste/wax or something in it that makes it stick to the wheel.....also supposed to be bad for your health, but what isn't anymore according to the "experts"?

[dryheat]

Tormek recommends using mineral oil to condition the leather on their leather wheels. I use neatsfoot (?) oil which seems to work OK. Handamerican makes a premixed CO that works well on leather also but it takes a bit of working into the leather.

Ed

[Callynne]

Okay, I just have a 'hand' strop, but the compound on it flakes off too, leaving rough, uneven places all over the strop. When that happens I just scrape it off using the back of a kitchen knife and put on more compound.

I thought it was because I was stropping my hand tools (different profiles) on the same strop as my knives, but I have a different strop for them now and my knife one still does it.

I've wondered why mine doesn't get that nice smooth, dark silver looking surface it's supposed to. Should I put some oil on it? Deborah

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I tried oil when I first started carving and it just made a big mess! I was using a hard jewelers rouge and it was just a powder when you scraped it......I like the compounds with the wax or whatever as it sticks and no special steps involved. imho

[Greyhair]

I have had the same problem on my hand strop as on my stropping wheel. But the mixture of bees wax has worked well on both. I am still messing with the mixture formula to see what percentage of bees wax works best.

[AlArchie]

I have found that the best compoud is available from Santa Fe Jewelers Supply. You need a business or tax number to purchase there, though. All their componds are in soft bar form which spreads and holds on both power and hand strops much better than the hard bars available at most hardware outlets. Personal preferance is their red jewelers' rouge.

Al

[Kenny_S]

I don't scrape the bar and put it on the strop. I just rub it across the strop frontwards and backwards, side to side. Scraping it does turn it into powder and lose somein doing so. I use the white , Jewelers rouge and the gold color with success. The white and jeweeler rouge on the leather power strop and the gold and jeweller's rouge on the hand strops.
But then, I think every one has their own technique in what to use and how to use it.

I say use and do what works for you and don't be affraid to try something new.

[mdallensr]

If your strop wheel is a low speed wheel, you could try the Tormek stropping compound, which comes in a tube, in paste form. It costs about $6/tube and last forever. I don't know how well it would work on a high speed wheel; you might end up wearing most of it.

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

On my power strop I just use the bar compound that is available from Sears, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. Any of the colors seem to work fine for carving tools. For my hand strop is use the Yellowstone that I get from Littleshavers. I just peel the paper back and rub the strop with the end of the stick. As far as flaking goes: on the power strop, the problem is non-existant for me, on the hand strop I don't have a problem unless I get a little sloppy or overconcerned about rounding off my edge. What happens is I hold the knife too flat and the back edge of the blade will scrape off the compound.