My Tandy Jeweler's rouge is HARD?

[SCOUTER]

I recently bought some Tandy White Jeweler's rouge and I have never seen rouge this hard! The consistency is harder then CHALK. I have used rouge before and it was mostly a hard paste like substance where you could dig your fingernail into. This White rouge is like a brick!

I tried to "soften" it up a bit by putting it in a zipper-lock bag with some warm water... No luck, still hard after two days.

It's so hard that it won't transfer to cardboard!

Is this the normal consistency for their rouge? Is there a way to soften it up?

Thanks!

[TracyMoss]

Maybe you can melt it with a little olive oil, I have made a paste out of rouge like that for my strop.

[Jordan]

Same problem. used an old parmesan cheese grater and a few drops of oil to make a paste that I rubbed into the leather strop.

[Johanna]

I guess I would just take it back to the place I bought it and ask for an exchange. We all have enough work to do without having to sweat over stropping.

Johanna

[tazzmann]

I got one the other day too that was hard as a rock. I used a small propane torch and heated it up slightly and it turned into a paste that I was able to rub into the leather. Never thought about the oil trick.

[AlcoveShop]

I've always told customers to "Dip the Tip" in Honing Oil from time to time. Olive oil is a good idea too!

[howardb]

I would bet the rouge that you GOT was just as the manufacturer had intended. THAT use is to hit a spinning felt / paper wheel for power sharpening & honing. You want a nice solid stick to touch against an 1800 RPM or worse spinning wheel.

I have a very hard red rouge stick and it just takes some elbow "grease" to work it into the leather. I've had better luck depositing it on the grain side rather than the flesh side, so you might try that. So far it works great.

I have not tried, but I wonder if... Has anyone tried loading the leather with somethign like FLITZ metal polish? It would be easy to load and just might work... Other similar metal polish pastes exist.

Also, at one time you could find loose powder rouges (no, not the makeup kind!), which you could make your own oil/rouge slurry to slap onto your leather.

Oh well, happy sharpening!

Brent

[TracyMoss]

I use a stropping wheel as well, and I get my rouge from RioGrande in Albequerque, NM. However, I do have a stick of the Tandy white rouge. It is too stiff and rubs off like an eraser( flaky ). That is why I recommended the olive oil. You can thin it with some heat and olive oil. Then it is easy to rub into your stropping surface. But use gloves, it is a little messy.

[TexasLady]

6/12/11

It's times like this when our heart moves us to exclaim 'what a wonderful forum this is'! Here we are, over three years after Scouter started this Thread, and I was having the exact same problem. I bought two sticks of Tandy White Rouge. One I kept and one I sent to a friend. Then, I went to make myself a strop, using a lovely strip of vege-tanned leather. I still have fond memories of my teacher at Tandy Leather making me my first miniature strop by rubbing the slightly dry, but creamy, white paste on the leather, and showing me how to get that wonderful, super-sharp edge on my good quality knife. So, my mouth was watering to get to sharpen all my old tools. I took the new stick of white rough out of its package and rubbed it on the piece of leather. Hmmm. All it did was mark it, scratch it, and dig into it. No rouge came off onto the leather. I soaked the stick in a cup of water over night. The next morning, it was still as hard as concrete. The only way that I could 'use it' to sharpen my knife was to drag the knife across the side of it, like a grinding stone!

I Googled, and your Thread here came up,... "Why is my Tandy rouge so hard?" After reading this Thread, and all your trials and tribulations, I went to my kitchen and put that stick of Tandy White rouge lying on its side in a small Pyrex bowl. I poured a Tablespoon of olive oil and a Tablespoon of water over the stick of rouge. Then I microwaved it for only 30 seconds. Perfect! Because I'd soaked it over-night in that cup of water, the water expanded and looked like sweat coming out of 'pores' in the stick of rouge. It was only 'very warm', not 'hot', so I was able to immediately pick it up and rub it on the waiting leather strip. It made a baby soft paste where I applied pressure, but the rest of the stick kept it's shape. I observed tiny fissures where the stick had been pressed. As it cooled, it hardened again. I wanted to go ahead and make a second strop. The second time, I only heated the rouge, water, and olive oil for 20 seconds. This wasn't long enough. Plus, there wasn't enough olive oil left in the mixture. Hence, when I applied the rough paste to the leather, it dried too quickly and 'caked' on the leather. I added more olive oil to the combination in the Pyrex bowl, microwaved it for another 20 seconds, and this time, again, it gave me a nice paste to work with. I had to enlist the help of a nearby plastic fork, using its flat edge to work down those dry 'caked' areas on the leather. Thanks to all of you for sharing your advice and stories. - Texas Lady