sharpening compound Types

[discovershashank]

Hi folks,

Have ordered few knives and affordable sharpening system from US and if all goes good, should have them next month.

Ordered the lansky 4 rod 25' 20' angle sharpener and few stones already, just ordered few leather strops.
Was looking for compound and came through a link on Ebay.com for set of black, white, green and red compounds.
I believe i have placed them on the basis of there coarseness. the seller provides an option to choose any combination of four compounds but limited to maximum 2 red compounds.


What combination would you suggest? As of now my plan is to use leather strops for finishing my knives after sharpening on the lanskey poor man's sharp maker or free hand.

[Mack The Knife]

The black is a must and since you have three other slots to fill, get one each of the other compounds.

[discovershashank]

The black is a must and since you have three other slots to fill, get one each of the other compounds.

The black one is supposed to be the most "corus or rough" whatever you may call it. As I was not taking this as a primary sharpening system, I was planning to drop the black and take 1 green, 1 white and 2 reds. what say?

[Mack The Knife]

The coarseness of the black is relative to the other compounds. It's equivalent in sandpaper/sharpening stone is 3000 grit. This is the compound you will need to go to when the edge has just lost it's bite. Trying to restore the 'bite' with green or white will take far longer than if you stropped on black compound. Green (6000 grit) and white (12000 grit) are mainly for polishing. No idea about the red compound.

[discovershashank]

Thanks so much Mack The Knife. Ordered one of each. Thanks for explaining the difference.
Is the grit uniform based on color regardless of the maker or manufacturer?

[Mack The Knife]

Thanks so much Mack The Knife. Ordered one of each. Thanks for explaining the difference.
Is the grit uniform based on color regardless of the maker or manufacturer?

You're welcome.

As for the uniformity of the compounds across the various manufacturers, I am not sure. However, the ease with which the strop will take the compound, depends on how the leather was treated. In this case, there is a difference.

Ideally the leather should take the compound when it is rubbed on. If it does not, warm the leather and compound and then reapply. Do not over apply and in case you do, take a scale (ruler) and scrape the excess off.

You may find these stropping videos useful.
http://www.knivesshipfree.com/pages.php?pID=4&CDpath=0

[Mark]

Thanks so much Mack The Knife. Ordered one of each. Thanks for explaining the difference.
Is the grit uniform based on color regardless of the maker or manufacturer?

No, it can be different according to the maker.

As a rough rule of thumb, figure the darker colors are coarser and the lighter colors are finer. One reason for this is when you are polishing items such as antler and wood the color can go into the item. I had a hard time once when I was finishing up a knife handle in antler and was using a green compound and the green went into the handle and I had a heck of as time getting it cleaned off.

[Raghavachari]

I found black emery and green buffing compound at Rs. 50 per block in a shop in Goregaon West.
Been using them for a while on my home made strop and it works very well. The strop is made from what I can only describe as a clothes washing bat.
Putting the link to the shop here.
http://www.indiamart.com/novelty/polish ... ition.html