[bikerdoc]

Any one use or heard of using baking soda, alone or mixed with mothers for polishing an edge?

[Macmac]

I have 'heard' of doing that, but with silverware, being real silver, and I thought the idea was to absorb tarnish, and the sulfers from in the air that caused the tarnish.

I made a simple leather strop, basicly 1/4" thick, 4 inches wide, and about 12 inches long, and rubbed it vigorisly with buffing compound.

Once and edge has been filed about right, and then stoned about right in maybe course and medium the strop will begin a polished edge..

Oh I forgot to mention the leather is glued to a board just a bit bigger than the leather, and then somewhat longer for a carved handle..

And of course I had to paint it mustard yellow in real milk paint because that's what I had on hand at the time.. (just the wooden part)

[Hans Esker]

In a pinch, it might work, but to do a proper job you need a buffing compound of some sort. My preference is green chromium oxide. My strop has two sides. The compound goes on one side, and a few finishing strokes on the "clean" side remove any compound residue.