Which Honing Paste do YOU Use?

[MrDavidRoberts]

My setup currently is a 400 & 1000 Grit diamond stones , after that I give a better edge using Autosol paste buttered on a good flat hardwood (that's what I already had) , the results are very OK!
However, I want to play around and I have an OCD around achieving the best I can I have a lot of time on my hands and I want to achieve the best edge one can possibly get just for the heck of it.

Which pastes in what succession would you recommend to achieve the best possible sharpness one can get after coming from a 1000 grit diamond?
Although the autosol gives rather ok results, I'm not really sure if it's designed to be used as plane blade sharpener.

After doing some research I wanted to try myself to get a bit of the Green Paste ( Chromium oxide) and after that To finish the last step using the red JEWELLERS Rouge paste (Irod Oxide).
However I'm sure there's a better combo... Would be cool if someone could share his methods/steps.

 

[MikeG.]

I wonder if anyone else uses Brasso?

 

[bugbear]

I would try to improve the 1000 grit diamond rather than your paste. It's really too big a jump.

BugBear

 

[NickN]

I just rub a Chromium Oxide stick on a leather strop and give the blade a few strokes on that after the 1200 diamond plate, seems to work, don't have time to mess around more anyway.

 

[D_W]

If you want nutty (and no clue why you would do this), you can go from autosol to green chrome oxide graded (not the wax stick stuff, which for all intents and purposes is just as good for sharpness on anything but a kamisori) on a semi-hard surface, and then to Kremer 110m iron oxide.

Then in the first two or four passes with a plane, you'll blast the initial work right off and be back at autosol.

Functionally, I think you're better off minding control of the wire edge off of the autosol if you want to get a truly sharp edge that shaves regardless of the orientation that it's presented to , for example, arm hair.

(that is, if you haven't managed the wire edge properly, an edge will often shave hair, but if you flip it over and try from the other side of the bevel, it won't. Managing the wire edge is just a matter of making sure it's thin enough - which shouldn't be an issue with autosol - and then stropping it off completely and cleanly).

Later steps, by the way, shouldn't be working the full bevel. I see the comment above that 1200 grit diamond to autosol (which is roughly 3 micron aluminum oxide) is too big of a jump, but it really isn't as long as you're biasing the work of later stones to the edge without increasing angle too much.

If all of this is sounding like a screw-around game, it is. You have some chance of creating a mock wear profile when applying all of these different edge chasing steps. I think your best bet in getting something functional is a bare leather strop and learning how to use it to clean up the work of the autosol. Beyond that is only useful for shaving your face (and we use a linen to clean up a razor edge - you could do fine with autosol and then linen).

 

[Rorschach]

A homemade mix of vaseline and jewellers rouge. Partly because it works really well but also partly because it's free lol.

 

[AndyT]

I was given a couple of tubes of Autosol a few years ago. I use it on offcuts of MDF that came from a skip.

Can you see a theme behind my choices?

 

[Trafalgar]

No sense beating around the bush:

https://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/pr ... plies.aspx

Imagine a powder that's graded to 5/100s of a micron. Otherwise, scroll down the page.

 

[MikeG.]

I was given a couple of tubes of Autosol a few years ago. I use it on offcuts of MDF that came from a skip.

Can you see a theme behind my choices?

Yeah, my Brasso is used on MDF too.........and I got it as a freebie. Works like a dream.

I've often thought that toothpaste would probably do the job pretty well too.

 

[Dovetaildave]

[/quote] Yeah, my Brasso is used on MDF too.........and I got it as a freebie. Works like a dream.

I've often thought that toothpaste would probably do the job pretty well too.[/quote]

We've tried polishing up the edges 2.5mm acrylic sheet when making photo frames, keyrings ect. Brasso beats toothpaste

 

[Cheshirechappie]

We've tried polishing up the edges 2.5mm acrylic sheet when making photo frames, keyrings ect. Brasso beats toothpaste

Hmmm. Does that mean that Brasso would make a better job of cleaning teeth than toothpaste?

 

[NickN]

All the best vampires use Brasso...

 

[memzey]

Another vote for autosol on mdf but the stone I go to it from is a surgical black ark which I think has a nominal grit rating of about 8,000. I wonder what the grit rating of autosol would be? Anyone know?

 

[D_W]

Another vote for autosol on mdf but the stone I go to it from is a surgical black ark which I think has a nominal grit rating of about 8,000. I wonder what the grit rating of autosol would be? Anyone know?

6000-8000, but the particles work differently on MDF than they would if they are 60% of the composition of a synthetic sharpening stone. You can manipulate them a little bit more.

They are about the same size as King's 8k stone, shapton's 5k stone, etc.

 

[woodbrains]

I would try to improve the 1000 grit diamond rather than your paste. It's really too big a jump.

BugBear

Hello,

Yes, this. Go for a 6000 or 8000 Waterstone and don't bother with stropping. Stropping tends to dub the edge, even on MDF but particularly on leather. Not a terrible thing, it increases the bevel a few degrees and this can sometimes be advantageous if your tool's edge chips a bit. But an 8000 grit is quicker, polishes nicely and keeps the intended angle, if OCD requires it. I keep two sharpening regimens, because I was brought up with oilstones. After grinding, I use fine India, Welsh slate and a strop with chromium oxide. Alternatively I use 1200 then 8000 waterstones, no strop. The quicker and better edge is with the waterstones. Theoretically the Chrome oxide is finer, but only just, and the higher angle achieved by stropping on leather negates the tiny advantage. It is still a fine way to get a sharp edge, we are talking margins here, but waterstones trump it.

Big jumps in grit size slow the process, and I believe the lower point count of abrasive in diamond compared to India oilstones (or Washita, Arkansas, etc.) and waterstones, makes diamond stones effectively coarser. Try a finer diamond before the strop, if this is the way for you. You can get 10 000G diamond. Or try ceramic, which had the same convenience. Spyderco are good.

Mike.

 

[D_W]

You can strop with bare leather, and once you learn what you're doing, get a lot out of it without creating a wear profile. Or you can hone on paste (which is really what's going on here, it's not stropping) on a harder surface like MDF and see plenty of improvement without rounding an edge.

Fine pastes on leather don't make a great deal of sense to me unless you analyze what you're doing and find about how much of it is improvement before it goes the other way. It's very few, and not with the two handed row that sellers shows.

 

[swagman]

I use a pure chromium oxide paste on leather. My personal preference is to restrict its use to no more than 1/2 a dozen strokes on each side of the cutting edge. imo there is little compromise to what can be achieved directly from your sharpening stones.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Autosol, sometimes Brasso and jewellers' rouge.

Brasso is pretty good, btw, and my starting point for polishing plastics, but for plastics you have to be careful that dried crusty bits don't fall into the liquid you're using, as it will scratch as easily as it cuts.

I think both Autosol and Brasso have reducing agents (i.e. they remove oxides as well as abrading). My school trombone wasn't lacquered, and when cleaning it, the Duraglit/Brasso pad went black almost immediately. This probably isn't an issue, but still worth remembering that they are chemically active as well as physically abrading.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

None. Just a fine Norton oilstone, then a slate stone or translucent Arkansas. Then a wipe off with a cloth and get back to work. Well, for carving tools I do have a Flexcut crayon thing, don't know what's in it, and I don't do much of that. I suppose I also have a leather wheel and some compound that came with my Sheppach grinder, not yet found it to be useful for anything though.

Go for a 6000 or 8000 Waterstone and don't bother with stropping. Stropping tends to dub the edge, even on MDF but particularly on leather.

Dubbing over edges by stropping on something soft is what puts me off. I can easily make things more blunt by stropping.

 

[D_W]

None. Just a fine Norton oilstone, then a slate stone or translucent Arkansas. Then a wipe off with a cloth and get back to work. Well, for carving tools I do have a Flexcut crayon thing, don't know what's in it, and I don't do much of that. I suppose I also have a leather wheel and some compound that came with my Sheppach grinder, not yet found it to be useful for anything though.

Go for a 6000 or 8000 Waterstone and don't bother with stropping. Stropping tends to dub the edge, even on MDF but particularly on leather.

Dubbing over edges by stropping on something soft is what puts me off. I can easily make things more blunt by stropping.

The yellow stuff sold as "gold" or some other tag here (and what's in the flexcut crayon) is the same abrasive and size as what's in autosol. It's a little more gentle on leather, though.

The race for the lowest micron would probably make someone think the gold wasn't enough, but it's better (more practical and probably better results) than buffing carving tools on green paste.