Green polishing compound?

[Mattatooi]

I can't seem to get the Silverline green polishing compound anywhere. Appears to be out of stock. Anyone know where I can get this? Or is there an alternative. Its for use with a leather strop.

 

[Myfordman]

Ebay!

 

[Mattatooi]

Cant find any on ebay in stock. There is one website but they charge and extortionate £15 for delivery and website looks about 10 years old...

 

[Mattatooi]

ok thats very odd. now first one i look it is in stock. i swear everyone was saying green was out of stock....

 

[dzj]

I once bought polishing compound from a dental supplies store.

 

[MattRoberts]

Why green? I have the white one, and have no idea what the colours mean! Is the green one better?

 

[Droogs]

the colours equate to their grit level and what they are supposed to be used on:

http://www.cooksongold.com/images-prod/ ... __1_12.jpg

 

[Rorschach]

The colours and grits are not a standardised thing though. Green usually means Chromium Oxide, but it could just be aly oxide and green colouring. Best really to go with a known supplier, I really like Menzerna for my polishing compounds, nearly all the ones I use are a creamy beige colour but they vary dramatically in grit.

 

[bugbear]

The colours and grits are not a standardised thing though. Green usually means Chromium Oxide, but it could just be aly oxide and green colouring. Best really to go with a known supplier, I really like Menzerna for my polishing compounds, nearly all the ones I use are a creamy beige colour but they vary dramatically in grit.

It's an "all herrings are fish, but not all fish are herrings" kind of deal.

All Chrome Oxide is green (indeed, it's used as an artists's pigment), but not all green abrasives are Chrome Oxide.

Furthermore, grit size is a variable (fairly) independent of abrasive compound.

BugBear

 

[ED65]

Or is there an alternative.

You can use any fine metal polish, the stuff sold for polishing stainless steel cookware will usually do the job quite well if you happen to have any of that already.

In the old days fine valve-grinding paste was used and that's still an option, but many now use rubbing compounds, the kind of thing you use to reduce scratches in car paintwork. Just about anything your nearest motor factors sells for this should work.

Another alternative that's been around for donkeys is Peek, which according to some forum posts I've read has a 0.5micron particle size.

 

[ED65]

Why green? I have the white one, and have no idea what the colours mean!

Green ones are usually sold as "chromium oxide compound" but it's now known that most or all actually have an amount of aluminium oxide in them as well (sometimes they're mostly aluminium oxide).

A mixture of the two is actually no bad thing in some cases, but white compounds will usually be based on aluminium oxide only, which on paper at least means they cut faster. The polish may not be quite as fine however because of the 'cushioning' effect of the chromium oxide particles.

Is the green one better?

Maybe? The type of steel you're working with is a factor. With very hard steels the chromium oxide is more a hindrance than a help, it's actually the aluminium oxide doing all the work.

 

[will1983]

try autosol, you get it from Halfords in a tube. i find this is actually easier to use than the green polishing compound as i use it on the cut edge of a peice of 18mm MDF.

 

[MattRoberts]

Thanks for the tips. I'm using it on a strop as the final step in sharpening my chisels and plane irons. Should I switch to an aluminium oxide then?

 

[ED65]

I think there's a good chance your white compound cuts better than any of the green ones Matt, but regardless if you're happy with the polish and the edge it creates there's not much reason to switch to something else.

Past a certain point this is getting into territory where one can be chasing increasingly diminishing returns, although to be fair unlike getting a new ultra-fine waterstone "Just to try it out." it isn't like it's costing an arm and a leg :-D

 

[MattRoberts]

Thanks Ed. If I'm honest, I'm still pretty new at this sharpening malarkey, and haven't noticed any real impact from this compound / strop anyway! But to be fair, I use hand tools pretty infrequently, so don't often need to sharpen

 

[ED65]

haven't noticed any real impact from this compound / strop anyway!

It was like night and day for me! But then I was using a very coarse stone by modern standards as my hone. The gains from stropping are like that, how much of an improvement you see is very dependent on the quality of the honed edge both in terms of how fine a stone/plate/paper was used and how well the angle was held.

 

[MattRoberts]

I have the veritas guide, so pretty confident about the angle. Then I have a 400 / 1000 diamond plate

 

[Rorschach]

If you are just using polishing compound to strop tools then don't worry too much about what you have, just about anything will work fine. If you are using it to polish metals, precious metals or especially plastics like I do, then you have to worry about what you are using.