Harbor Freight and buffing compounds

[Marc Simon]

So I’m at Harbor Freight tools and I see all kind of buffing compounds.

I have the WEP Propac 2 what suggestions do you guys have in regards to the compounds I should get that will fill in my stropping?

Also should I get balsa strops or another set of leather.

The compounds they have are Black, White, Red, Blue, Green and Brown.

$5 each ( or $4 with my 20% coupon).
Thank you,
Marc

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

So I’m at Harbor Freight tools and I see all kind of buffing compounds.

I have the WEP Propac 2 what suggestions do you guys have in regards to the compounds I should get that will fill in my stropping?

Also should I get balsa strops or another set of leather.

The compounds they have are Black, White, Red, Blue, Green and Brown.

$5 each ( or $4 with my 20% coupon).
Thank you,
Marc

Those are pretty good I have only used the two whites and a green. If it were up to me? :unsure: Clay offers some sweet diamond paste. One of my fav combo’s is to use the balsa with 14/10 then finish off with the 5um on either the leather or Roo. B) The roo is especially nice! I can make a hair “pop” by touching the blade. :ohmy: Of coarse the Ken Schwartz 1/.25 will make for a screaming sharp blade, :cheer: but there is some thing about 14/10 balsa w/5 diamond that makes a great slicing knife! :woohoo: Funny if I continue with the 3.5 diamond paste it cuts the hair but does not pop?
Qualify hair popping here…http://coticule.be/hanging-hair-test.html
Have fun!! 😛
Eamon

[Phil Pasteur]

I think (Eamon knows this) that there can be many different compounds that are white, or any other color.
I have HF1 and 525 that are both white, way different grit size.

Usually Black is the most coarse, then brown, white, green (often called stainless steel polishing), red, (should be jewelers rouge, but there are many grades of that), blue (general purpose polishing, not much abrasive at all).

Jewelers rouge typically is rated about 5 microns, but has a range of grits depending on the grade that you buy. For what they charge, the HF stuff is probably all over the place.

Don’t buy any of them. Get a quality abrasive with a known concentration and grit range.

Eamon is using his, as am I “white” compound on a belts sander… big difference from precision stropping on the WEPS!!!

So I’m at Harbor Freight tools and I see all kind of buffing compounds.

I have the WEP Propac 2 what suggestions do you guys have in regards to the compounds I should get that will fill in my stropping?

Also should I get balsa strops or another set of leather.

The compounds they have are Black, White, Red, Blue, Green and Brown.

$5 each ( or $4 with my 20% coupon).
Thank you,
Marc

[Phil Pasteur]

One other thing to add..
Those compounds are made for power buffers, They are usually wax based… or something like that. They instruct you to hold them against a power buffer, usually at around 3700 RPM.. so that they melt on to the wheel.

It is really hard to get a decent coat of that stuff on a WEPS paddle with leather or anything else that it not moving at high speed relative to the steel.

I have tried… mixing with mineral spirits and heating to make a paste of the “right” consistency.
I did this for bench strops, just to find out how it would work… it sucks!!!

Not worth it for what you want to do… stropping with the WEPS.

If you get the WEPS pastes or diamond sprays, or CROX2 or CBN from Hands American, or Ken Schwartz. You get known quality materials that are designed for stropping knives.

Save yourself all of the grief and experimentation (and cost in dollars and time) that I have gone through… just get the good stuff to begin with!

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

One other thing to add..
Those compounds are made for power buffers, They are usually wax based… or something like that. They instruct you to hold them against a power buffer, usually at around 3700 RPM.. so that they melt on to the wheel.

It is really hard to get a decent coat of that stuff on a WEPS paddle with leather or anything else.

For grins I tried the “white” #525 on a piece of leather the other night (it was kinda like a bench strop?:S ) and it failed or shall we say it did not work for poop!

[Phil Pasteur]

as mentioned… that stuff is designed for power tools… either buffers or belt grinders with leather belts.. there is the need for speed here

🙂

[cbwx34]

Don’t buy any of them. Get a quality abrasive with a known concentration and grit range.

I’d 2nd this, and add, some of the cheap bars have a tendency to not stick well and come off like a powder… and get on other strops and areas you don’t want.

[Marc Simon]

I hate you guys for being right.
Thanks,
Marc

[Phil Pasteur]

Why??
Did you buy some?

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

I hate you guys for being right.
Thanks,
Marc

HaHa don’t feel bad if you did? :S As in all things in my life I have to learn the hard way? :S Now when Curtis, Mark, Phil or Clay says “ya know should tap your head three times, then rub your belly and then …. 😛 That’s what I do cause it is the easier, softer way to get things done. 🙂
Remember to have fun.
Eamon

[Fred Hermann]

Skip these compounds, they will only cause you grief.
They are ok if you’re hand stropping, and the only one that’s worth playing with is white, it’s the finest. I’d never touch a WEPS strop with it as its not a consistent grit.

[Gregg776]

Back about 1960, long before all information was available on the internet, I discovered Simichrome metal polish and made bench strops out of whatever leather I could find and charged them with this stuff. It was miraculous in those days producing a mirror edge after a few swipes on an Arkansas stone. I still have some of the strops I made and they still are OK for the quick and dirty fine edge. You can’t beat it for the price and it works to polish all sorts of other things. Back to Harbor Freight; nothing they sell is very precise including grading and consistency of their buffing grits. What you get is a range of grit in an unknown binder. If you really want to use buffing compounds, get on the internet and find some quality materials. I’ve tried Harbor Freight buffing compounds on buffing wheels with poor results. If you want to charge a strop with wax based buffing compound, you can shave some of the compound off the bar and make a slurry with neatsfoot oil or put the neatsfoot oil sparingly on the leather strop and rub the buffing compound bar across the surface before all of the oil has soaked in. You can find chromium oxide for charging razor strops that some of the straight razor fans use, it is about 0.5 micron; the Simichrome is considerably more aggressive. In summary, you can’t beat the diamond paste or spray for consistency, fast results, and lasting abrasive qualities. Face it, when you strop with a charged strop, you are rounding off the edge somewhat, depending on the flexibility of the strop surface and how hard you push; more stropping doesn’t produce better results.

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