How to use jewelers rouge

[circlecross]

I bought a stick of jewelers rouge from Tandy but I can't figure out how to get it rubbed into the leather. I have tried rubbing the stick on the leather and have also scraped some off but can't get it into the leather very easily. Can someone help me.

[CitizenKate]

I take it you have a leather strop, then?

Kate

[circlecross]

Yes I made a strop. I glued a 4x6 piece of leather to a piece of wood and oiled it real good. I just could not get the jewelers rouge to go into the leather.

[bruce johnson]

I haven't used their rouge for a while, but used to find that if I sprayed the stick with a little WD 40 it helped. The rouge from Weaver and Sears is less chalky I found.

[TwinOaks]

Pretend the rouge stick is an eraser and there's something bad written about your mom on the leather, i.e. rub it quickly and very hard. Friction more or less 'melts' the rouge and the leather will pick it up.

[circlecross]

Thanks for the help. I will try that.

[RandyScott]

I think that most of the rouge and polishes were designed for application on buffing wheels. As such the abrasive material is mixed with a high temperature grease or wax. When the stick was applied to the buff as it is turning, the friction created heat which melted the grease/wax and deposited the abrasive on the buff. I recently saw a video of someone using a candle to melt the stick of rouge/abrasive and smeared the melted stuff on his strop, similar to melting a crayon. He then used the same candle to bring the smeared stuff up to temp and then worked it into the strop material. Note: he did caution the viewer to keep the strop moving to prevent overheating the leather. He then used a knife blade to further smooth and work the abrasive into the strop surface. I have not tried this method yet.

[ChuckBurrows]

rub it on then use a hairdryer to get it to "soak" in........

[Vikti]

I learned that the blue polishing compound that Harbor Freight sells appears to be good to use instead of rouge. I found out about it on my last visit to Hidecrafters and have since found someone else who uses it and told me that he likes the results. It's pretty soft and goes onto the strop real good.

Hope this helps.

[King's X]

I actually have the white, red and black from HF, which I learned from a local belt maker. He loves it and so far, I have found it to work for me.

Happy New Year's greeting from Round Rock, Texas

[Colman]

Another thing to use is chrome polish, I put "Semichrome" on my strop and it works well.

You do have to "reload" more often, but it is not as thick as the rouge and goes on very easy.

Johnny

[OutBackP]

A tip I have used successfully in the past is to melt the block of rouge in a double boiler and add a small amount of olive oil. Just enough so that when it's at room temperature it's not as hard and goes into the leather easier. I remould in a small yogurt pot.