How to make your own sharpening paste? What do I mix with the abrasive? Help.

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bluesmandan

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Oct 31, 2013
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I'm hoping someone has an answer to my problem. I'm trying to make some sharpening paste using some aluminum oxide abrasive (8000 grit).

I've got the Tormek paste, and it works great, but it's a little expensive. So I bought 5 pounds of abrasive to make my own. But... I don't know what to mix it with to make a paste. Not a compound that's hard, but a soft paste like toothpaste. Again, I'm trying to replicate the tormek paste on my own. I tried water and mineral oil, since tormek suggests using mineral oil on the leather before using their paste, but it yields less than desirable results... it makes a sticky mess. So mineral oil is out. You can't use just water, because then when the water eventually evaporates, the "paste" will turn to powder, and make a different kind of mess.

So... something cheap and non-sticky that doesn't evaporate... that I can put on a leather belt on a belt grinder... in paste form...

Any ideas?
 
marcinek said:
Toothpaste?
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Thanks for the suggestions. But no and no.

Play-doh is salt, flour, and water. It will dry out and get all crusty. No good.

Toothpaste is REALLY sticky. I've tried it before. And it's not particularly cheap. It also has abrasives in it already, which would affect my attempts to control my grit size at 8000 grit or 3 microns. I don't know what grit toothpaste is. Different brands probably have different grits. But it's too sticky. It'll get gunk all over the place and stick all over the blade.
 
food grade grease?
heat/melt a couple ounces, add grit, stir and allow to cool back down.
if it's too thick, add mineral oil to thin it.
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The pastes you buy are mostly silicone based pastes.

Maybe some 3M Automotive (MMM08946) paste.. 8oz for 20 bucks or so on amazon... not sure if thats cheap or not.
You can likely find cheaper sources maybe even suppliers to that supply to the companies making abrasive paste.
 
How about silicone automotive grease? Its always the same viscosity, not effected by heat or cold, and adding in the grit will thicken it up.

Why not just use what everyone else does and go with green compound? Its probabily cheaper (especially in bulk), than getting all the different stuff to make your own and its consistent.
 
I would recommend only mixing enough abrasive as you need for one application. Go to a walmart and buy some "Miralax" for constipation. All it is is powdered food grade polyethylene glycol. Experiment with the Miralax powder, water, and abrasive powder, and eventually you'll get the right consistency. The key is to mix the Miralax and water first, and let it sit until the concoction is clear so you can see the solution is fully cured, then add abrasive powder until you reach a good consistency.
 
Tormek paste is about $9 for 2 oz. So whatever i end up with, it needs to be cheaper than the Tormek, otherwise its a moot point. The silicone pastes I'm seeing online are all fairly expensive. Food grade grease is a bit cheaper, though I don't know how it would work... maybe it would be good. Miralax would dry out from evaporation, wouldn't it? I'm totally unfamiliar with miralax...

I already have green compound, btw, and use it, but it is not the same as 8000 grit paste. I've read that green Chromium Oxide is about 1.5 to 2 microns. The paste I'm using is 8000 grit aluminum oxide, or 3 microns. So green compound is potentially half the grit size of the tormek paste and the paste I'm attempting to make. I use green compound on razors, AFTER I use 8000 grit abrasive. But I don't typically use it on knives. The green compound also doesn't load up the same as the paste. With the paste, you just dab a little on and rub it in a bit, all over the belt, and you can really load a bunch of abrasive on it, and it will really cut and do some aggressive honing. Green compound is pretty hard, and just doesn't load up as well, and since it is finer, it doesn't cut as aggressively or leave as toothy of an edge.
 
Parrafin wax. Melt it, stir in your abrasive, let cool.
Apply like polishing compound.
 
Paraffin or beeswax - there are lots of materials you can add to customize how it handles. It won't work so well to cut them with a lot of oil to make a paste. Stearin (stearic acid) is what the commercial folks use. Its basically tallow, derived from vegetable or maybe animal sources. You can do a web search and learn how to collect your own by rendering down animal fat...
 
I wonder if I could use some cheap skin moisturizer, like generic equate vaseline intensive care. That could possibly work...
 
you'd be better off using straight petroleum jelly with your grit mixed in.
lotion/moisturizer will eventually either dry out or go rancid, maybe both.
 
This is what I ended up making: approximately
4 parts "Fruit of the Earth" 100% Aloe Vera Gel ($4 for 12oz. at WalMart)
4 parts 3 micron 8000 grit "Aluminum Oxide polish" abrasive powder ($20+sh/h for 5 lbs. at www.therockshed.com about $30 with shipping)
1 part Lexol leather conditioner ($12 for 1 Liter at Amazon.com)

Basically I mixed equal parts aloe vera gel and aluminum oxide, and stirred it well until I got a thick paste like I wanted. I didn't measure, just eyeballed it. I put some on a strop and tried it out. It worked okay but after a few minutes it started drying out and dusting like the Tormek paste. So I added a little bit of leather conditioner (Lexol is supposedly made of neatsfoot oil and lanolin, and I think it has some wax in it too). The lexol I've used for years on my boots, and it has more of a waxy feel than a greasy feel. I figured it would condition the leather belt as well as help prevent the dusting effect after the water in the aloe vera gel evaporated. Seems to work. Put some on my viel belt sander equipped with a Surgisharp 1x42 leather belt, and did a couple of knives. SHARP!!!! And it wasn't gunky or greasy like the mineral oil was... very easy to wipe off the blade after honing it. So it seems that I have a successful mix here. Put it in a little tupperware type container for easy access.
: )

All in all its about $50 I've spent so far, but I'll have HEAPS of the stuff for generous use rather than $9 for 2 oz of the dusty Tormek paste and feeling like I have to stretch it as far as possible. And from the feel of the stuff, I'd say my mix has better QC on the size of the grit than the Tormek paste does. I don't feel larger bits of "sand" in it like I do in the Tormek paste. I don't know who makes the grit for therockshed.com but they do a pretty good job as far as I can tell.
 
1066vik said:
you'd be better off using straight petroleum jelly with your grit mixed in.
lotion/moisturizer will eventually either dry out or go rancid, maybe both.
Click to expand...

On strops anyway, I've had good luck with mineral oil-based hand lotions (namely, a product called 'Eucerin', or Walmart carries a generic equivalent called 'Equate'). Being that the primary ingredient is mineral oil, it doesn't completely dry up like other lotions might (doesn't go rancid either). I used it on a leather belt of mine, with green compound, and the compound has never become dry/dusty since. I watched closely for that, as the powdered green compound I used really messes with my sinuses, if used dry. Mixed and applied with the lotion, it really holds to the leather well. Can't say if this would be the same on a powered leather belt, which I assume would be more prone to throwing off material (leather dust and/or compound) under pressure from a knife edge.


David
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
On strops anyway, I've had good luck with mineral oil-based hand lotions (namely, a product called 'Eucerin', or Walmart carries a generic equivalent called 'Equate'). Being that the primary ingreadient is mineral oil, it doesn't completely dry up like other lotions might (doesn't go rancid either). I used it on a leather belt of mine, with green compound, and the compound has never become dry/dusty since. I watched closely for that, as the powdered green compound I used really messes with my sinuses, if used dry. Mixed and applied with the lotion, it really holds to the leather well. Can't say if this would be the same on a powered leather belt, which I assume would be more prone to throwing off material (leather dust and/or compound) under pressure from a knife edge.
David
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Yes, I was concerned with throw-off. My mixture seems to work pretty well so far. I'll know more after this weekend, as I'm planning to work another gun&knife show.

I considered lotions, but was trying to avoid mineral oil, as I think it is too sticky, and is a little bit of a pain to clean off of the blade after its mixed with the abrasive. It's really greasy/gummy and doesn't want to come off quickly. It takes a minute to clean off the blade, and for my business I can't spare the extra minute, as time is money. If I do a hundred knives in a day and have to add a minute to each one... that's 100 minutes LESS of actual money-making work I get to do. I actually went to walmart and felt little samples of a whole bunch of the different lotions and read the ingredients to try and find one that was free of mineral oil and petroleum products and "felt" right, not being too sticky or greasy. There was one that had a good bit of wax in it, and I thought would work, but it was about $13 and I thought that was too expensive.

As for the suggestion about petroleum jelly, all petroleum based products will break down the fibers of the leather, so its generally a no-no to use petroleum based products on leather according to leather workers. I'd even be careful with mineral oil, as it is petroleum based, even though it is highly refined. I don't think it would matter on little hand strop, but on a powered leather belt which costs a little more money and is under a deal of stress I would avoid using petroleum. I don't put it on my boots either. I also think petroleum jelly is REALLY sticky and messy and would be time prohibitive to use because of all the cleanup.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
On strops anyway, I've had good luck with mineral oil-based hand lotions (namely, a product called 'Eucerin', or Walmart carries a generic equivalent called 'Equate'). Being that the primary ingreadient is mineral oil, it doesn't completely dry up like other lotions might (doesn't go rancid either). I used it on a leather belt of mine, with green compound, and the compound has never become dry/dusty since. I watched closely for that, as the powdered green compound I used really messes with my sinuses, if used dry. Mixed and applied with the lotion, it really holds to the leather well. Can't say if this would be the same on a powered leather belt, which I assume would be more prone to throwing off material (leather dust and/or compound) under pressure from a knife edge.


David
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good point -- mineral oil (or petroleum jelly) based lotions don't go rancid.
most hand lotion is water based with a little oil and they grow mold quick.
 
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