How To Herb's Yellowstone

Minnesota Man

Minnesota Man

Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
848
Hey guys, quite awhile ago I bought Herb's Yellowstone stropping compound based on hearing good things. It arrived very hard and it will barely stick to a leather strop. It's very hard and doesn't easily apply like the other compounds I've tinkered with mostly Craftsman. Did I get an old dried up "bar"? Am I just inexperienced? Any advice out there? I've seen it easily apply on YouTube to grinding belts but I'm talking about raw leather. Maybe not truly raw but leather strops purchased from the big river site.
 
Minnesota Man said:
Hey guys, quite awhile ago I bought Herb's Yellowstone stropping compound based on hearing good things. It arrived very hard and it will barely stick to a leather strop. It's very hard and doesn't easily apply like the other compounds I've tinkered with mostly Craftsman. Did I get an old dried up "bar"? Am I just inexperienced? Any advice out there? I've seen it easily apply on YouTube to grinding belts but I'm talking about raw leather. Maybe not truly raw but leather strops purchased from the big river site.
Click to expand...

Naw that's the way it is. This was my first strop compound and after using many others I still think it is quite good.
Way back in the day I used to . . . hahaha. . . are you ready ? I used to put it in a plastic bag and beat the heck out of it with a hammer and then pinch some dust and sprinkle it on the strop.
That's probably a very dumb thing to do looking back.

Finally I progressed to scraping dust off the stick into a bag. You can use anything that is laying around from the edge of an old file to a screw driver or an old beater knife etc.

You will probably get much better advice from the strop dudes, I'm kind of your "antistrop" dude these days.

From reading these guys I'm thinking they will tell you to rub some warm oil onto the block and then spread it onto the strop once the oil dissolves some of the block.

but yes . . . it is a little nuts how difficult it can be for a new person. I just wished that ol' Herb had sent the abrasive out in powdered form in a jar or bag or gosh darn it a tub of paste.
Hellooooooooo !
 
Yeah, like Wowbagger mentioned, I like to scrape shavings off the bar into a little tupperware container then mix in a little mineral oil. After sitting for a few minutes, the oil will have softened the waxy matrix of your compound and it will mix together into a nice paste that will apply very nicely to your leather
 
Beansandcarrots said:
Yeah, like Wowbagger mentioned, I like to scrape shavings off the bar into a little tupperware container then mix in a little mineral oil. After sitting for a few minutes, the oil will have softened the waxy matrix of your compound and it will mix together into a nice paste that will apply very nicely to your leather
Click to expand...
Thank you friend, on a side note? How do I edit the damned auto corrected title? It happened to me before.
 
Minnesota Man said:
Thank you friend, on a side note? How do I edit the damned auto corrected title? It happened to me before.
Click to expand...
Hold your curser / arrow over "Thread Tools" just bellow and to the right of the title. It will give you a drop down, then look for "Edit Title".
 
I met Herb Dunkel many years ago when he traveled to wood carving shows.
Herb's Yellowstone is actually pink in color and was made for him by Norton Abrasives in MA.
I believe it was about the same grit size as the original Green Chromium Oxide which was so popular at the time.

It is a hard chalk like consistency,,, we used an old knife blade or hack saw blade and scraped the surface to create a powder. This pink powder was then applied with fingers to the pigskin covered strops made by Herb. The pigskin was very thin and hard and would not round the edge like softer cowhide.

Excellent stropping compound and it is Aluminum Oxide based, I believe. Very fine finish results,,, used it for years on ATS-34 type steels

Regards,
FK
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top