Abrasive Colors

EPAIII · Oct 8, 2018

I am looking at getting a strop and some abrasive to charge it. One way that these abrasives are sold is in wax bars. Looking at various web sites, I see that green seems to be a very common color for these bars, but other colors are also used: red, white, black, and perhaps others. But no one mentions what these colors mean. And on one site I saw a user feedback comment that three different colors of bars were shipped with the strop that he bought, but with no indication of what they were.

Is there some common color code for these abrasive sticks? And if so, what do the colors mean? And what about other types of abrasives? Are there any color standards here?

MattiJ · Oct 8, 2018

EPAIII said:
I am looking at getting a strop and some abrasive to charge it. One way that these abrasives are sold is in wax bars. Looking at various web sites, I see that green seems to be a very common color for these bars, but other colors are also used: red, white, black, and perhaps others. But no one mentions what these colors mean. And on one site I saw a user feedback comment that three different colors of bars were shipped with the strop that he bought, but with no indication of what they were.

Is there some common color code for these abrasive sticks? And if so, what do the colors mean? And what about other types of abrasives? Are there any color standards here?

Green color comes from the chromium oxide abrasive itself.
And AFAIK there is no really standard of these, particle size, abrasive material and binder can be "anything" and vary from manufacturer to other.
One manufacturer "green rouge" is only superfine chromium oxide, another manufacturer tosses in some "coarser" aluminium oxide to their "green rouge"
But most of them seem to go along these lines:
https://www.cooksongold.com/downloads/files/Polishing-Compound-Chart.pdf

eKretz · Oct 8, 2018

Yeah green is always chromium oxide. It is pretty darn fine. Different manufacturers have their own blends like Mattij noted, so one may be a slight bit finer or faster cutting than another. Depending on what you want to do with it, this might not even matter though. For something like a straight razor you want fine and consistent. For most knives or tools, any green chromium oxide blend will be fine.

Your best bet would probably be getting the information on whatever compounds you want to buy straight from the manufacturer.

EPAIII · Oct 8, 2018

"...straight from the manufacturer."

Well, the web sites that I have seen offer little information. I guess you just have to ask.

Am I the only one who wants to know about what I am buying?

DMF_TomB · Oct 8, 2018

EPAIII said:
I am looking at getting a strop and some abrasive to charge it. One way that these abrasives are sold is in wax bars. Looking at various web sites, I see that green seems to be a very common color for these bars, but other colors are also used: red, white, black, and perhaps others. But no one mentions what these colors mean. And on one site I saw a user feedback comment that three different colors of bars were shipped with the strop that he bought, but with no indication of what they were.

Is there some common color code for these abrasive sticks? And if so, what do the colors mean? And what about other types of abrasives? Are there any color standards here?

.
no universal color code on abrasives
.
just like no universal color code for electrical wire. the Chinese use different colors

billzweig · Oct 8, 2018

The common colour scheme is orange, yellow or white for courser particles (those are usually aluminum oxide based). Red, an iron oxide base, is fine to very fine. Green, chromium oxide, usually (but not always) very fine. The white, red and green are the natural colour of the abrasive, but different makers add other pigments to create their own grades.

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Abrasive Colors

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Diamond

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Titanium

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Diamond; Mod Squad

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Diamond

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Diamond

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Stainless

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