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Sharpening Compounds
Sharpening compounds are the abrasive media that turn a leather strop from a passive finishing surface into an active cutting tool. DLT Trading stocks compound bars, diamond pastes, and polishing compounds across a range of grits and abrasive types, giving you control over exactly how aggressively your strop refines the edge and what kind of finish it leaves behind.
Compound Bars, Diamond Paste, and Polishing Compounds
Compound bars are the most common format — solid bars of abrasive suspended in a wax binder that you apply directly to leather by rubbing a light coat onto the stropping surface. Chromium oxide (green compound) is the standard for general-purpose knife stropping, offering a fine abrasive grit that polishes the apex and removes the burr left by your final sharpening stone. Black compound runs coarser and removes more material, making it the right choice for the first stropping pass when transitioning from medium-grit stones. White compound is the finest option in a bar format, producing a high polish for applications where a smooth, refined edge matters more than an aggressive bite. Diamond paste and diamond emulsions take a different approach — industrial diamond particles suspended in a liquid or paste carrier that you apply in measured amounts. Diamond compounds cut faster and more consistently than oxide-based bars, and they're available in precise micron ratings that let you build a controlled finishing progression from coarse refinement through mirror polish.
Matching Compounds to Your Strop and Steel
A single green compound bar handles most stropping needs on conventional blade steels. For users running a multi-grit finishing progression, dedicating one strop per compound grit prevents cross-contamination between abrasive levels — load a coarser compound on one paddle strop and a finer compound on another, then finish on bare leather. For high-carbide steels like S90V, M390, and MagnaCut, traditional oxide compounds can struggle to cut through wear-resistant carbide structures efficiently. CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride) compounds and emulsions are purpose-built for that application, delivering faster refinement on hard, carbide-dense steels where conventional abrasives stall. DLT stocks CBN emulsions across multiple micron grades alongside the full range of traditional compound bars, so your finishing system matches the steel you're actually sharpening.