Jeweller's rouge - useful for stropping?

[Federico Mena Quintero]

One of the antique shops around here got a bunch of unused blocks of jeweller's rouge. Has anyone tried using that stuff for stropping? I'm about to make a leather-covered strop, so it got me wondering...

[David Weaver]

If it's the red stuff, it should be fine enough to add some benefit.

edit - i just looked up what's in it (iron oxide), and agree with jim. it's not intend to cut metal like the aluminum oxide and chromium oxide polishes.

I wonder what's in the blue polish for plastics. does anyone know?

Jim, i've used diamonds and the green chromium oxide. I don't see any benefits to the diamonds over the green stuff.

[Jim Koepke]

Jeweler's rouge is iron oxide, iirc. It is fairly soft compared to chisels. I have some from a long time ago and it has a little effect, but does not work real well for stropping blades. Recently we visited a lapidary shop (my wife is a rock hound) and they had different abrasives including jeweler's rouge. I bought a green stick which I think is composed of chrome oxide. It works great. I now mostly use the jeweler's rouge for polishing finishes on wood.

Other folks like a diamond paste. I have not tried that yet.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Upon reading David's post, it struck me that different vendors will have different compounds for their rouges and stropping powders.

At the lapidary shop, I just bought the finest hard polishing stick they had. It is used for charging fabric wheels and polishing rocks.

The lapidary shop also sells jewelry supplies since a lot of rock hounds also make jewelry.

A well supplied lapidary shop will even have a few tools that may appeal to a woodworker.

jtk

[David Weaver]

I agree, jim. I've seen stuff sold as "rouge" that has aluminum oxide in it. unless it comes from a jewelry supply store and they tell you what it's used for and what's in it, i think the only way to figure it out is try.

The only reason i tried the second (sears) green stick is because it was $2 and it was made in the US. I think someone looking to be really cheap could chalk up a piece of MDF, add a couple of drops of oil and use it as a finish stone because it's a little more coarse than the stuff LV sells, but it's still easily hair-removing sharp. It is hard, though, and I get the sense using it that it was never designed to be chalked off onto something with oil, but instead applied to something with power so that heat can soften the end of the stick for application. the stuff labeled "microfine" sold by ww suppliers is a lot softer and easier to use.

[Jim Paulson]

Frederico,

As a carver and a woodworker I often use a leather strop with rouge as the last stage of polishing the edge. It seems to help clean up the edge after all the honing is done on the stones or sandpaper. I confess that I've tried red, green and white rouge, and something called yellowcake, and they all seem to help me get what I'm after--a razor sharp edge. I have a sharpening/buffing machine that I use on my carving tools. It features lap wheels that I dress with white rouge. What matters is whether you get the edge you want. For me with carving tools it is whether I can get a crisp cut going across the grain.

If they aren't asking that much, it is worth paying a few bucks to give it a try. For my strop I just used about a three wide strip of rawhide and glued it to a wooden stick with a handle.

Take care,
Jim

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Thanks to all for your advice. I guess I'll try the rouge and see how it goes; they are cheap enough.