[Woodcarver] H Even at this unnatural hour ...

[Joe Dillett]

Maura, I wish you luck on the move. An adequate size shop is important.

Here's my opinion to your question, "what is the best compound to use on a leather strop?"
I prefer the green compound. At one of our GOW's we tested the green against the Yellow Stone. We tried to control the variables as much as possible following the directions on both. In the end we all decided that there wasn't any difference, both yielded good results. I believe both are 1/2 micron particles of aluminum oxide for the abrasive with different binders. 1/2 micron is not quite optical quality because if used on glass it does cloud. In the buffing section of most hardware stores you can get sticks of buffing compound for Plexiglas and glass that is about 1/4 micron, which appears to be optical quality because it will not cloud glass. I feel that the 1/4 micron would produce a finer edge on our carving tools but would not be worth taking almost twice the time for polishing where the 1/2 micron does a good enough job, on our tools, for even the softest of woods. I have tried the powdered aluminum oxide (jewelers quality 1/4 micron) with success as well as the larger sticks of the cheaper white compound, and the compounds found in the buffing section at most hardware stores and prefer the green compound over all of those. My preference is based on ease of use (just rub it on), how it holds to the leather or any other substrate, overall cost (one stick lasts a very long time) and especially how quickly it polishes.

I've never heard of using baby powder for buffing (just babies in the buff) but I have heard of toothpaste as a substitute for buffing compound. My feelings on that is I would rather take advantage of all the testing those companies did, experimenting with hundreds of materials to engineer a high quality product. 

Joe Dillett
The Carving Shop
645 E. LaSalle St. Suite 3
Somonauk, IL. 60552

(815) 498-9290 phone
(815) 498-9249 fax
http://www.thecarvingshop.net [business web site]
http://www.carvingmagazine.com ['Ask Joe' column]
http://community.webshots.com/user/joe_dillett
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linehan718 at aol.com 
  To: woodcarver at carverscompanion.com 
  Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 4:36 AM
  Subject: Spam:****, Re: [Woodcarver] Even at this unnatural hour ...


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  In a message dated 3/12/2009 5:31:04 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, celtcarver at me.com writes:
    In any event, even if I can't type, I can hear the faint sounds of  
    tools being sharpened. What are you working on? What is the burning  
    woodcarving question of the day on the cold, blustery morn?


    Matt Kelley

  I am as always carving more mini wolves (3/4" tall) , have done about 200 at this point, people keep buying and I will keep carving.

  My question of the day will be "what is the best compound to use on a leather strop" Is it aluminum oxide???  I have heard baby powder is excellent.  Does anybody have any knowledge of that???   

  Maura
  www.Carvinginnyc.com




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