Anyone here using powdered abrasives?

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
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I'm having an ongoing discussion on Fogg's forum about the use of powdered abrasives and soft pads, even suspensions in lapping oil, to really enhance and work hamon. Anyone here using these methods, and if so, what materials and techniques are you using? This is a whole new world for me.
 
Tai Goo chimed in with a few helpful things, as did Don. Both use silicon carbide abrasives, which narrows down the playing field substantially. Tai said he finishes with paper up to 600 or 800, then switches to the powders. The powders have totally different grits. Tai said 400-600 is more like 1000-1200 in paper grits. He'll use water as a lubricant on the lower grit powders, with a gray scotchbrite pad, then wd-40 and a white scotbrite pad as he goes higher. Don is experimenting with a lot of different combinations, the use of different oils as slurry mediums, etc.

One of the difficulties I had was finding a source that had the powders you'd need, in all the grits, for reasonable prices. I haven't ordered anything yet, but www.arrowheadlapidarysupply.com seemed to have the most reasonable prices on 1 pound bags ($5-$12 per bag depending on grit). Could be poor quality, so buy at your own risk. Other places were as much as twice that, others landed in the middle but didn't have all the grits, etc.

Let me know how it works out if you give it a shot. I'll probably order a few grits and see what I can make of it. Pictures and a tutorial will follow if I can make something happen that I can't with paper.
 
I use diamond paste abrasives for really fine polishing ever since a forumite sent me some... a little bit goes a long way, and I can go to like 1/2 micron finish from 800 grit on a 4" blade in about half an hour... :)

Tony
 
Wow! Tai posted a picture of a great plain temper line that he coaxed with the powders and that's definitely the direction I need to be going in for what I want to do. I wonder how far you can stretch a 1 lb bag of this stuff. Pretty soon I'm going to have lifetime supplies of EVERYTHING! :rolleyes: I'll let you know how the powders go. I'm pretty excited to try, but unfortunately with my wife's birthday right around the corner I blew my "knifemaking budget" right out of the water. :grumpy:
 
I use several grits starting at about 30 micron and going to 1/2 micron.

I believe the progression is:

30 micron

15 micron

6 micron

3 micron

1 micron

1/2 micron

I'll post a few pictures of what it can do....

This was a little simple knife forged out of52100 and it was all I had handy when I got the paste, so I did a test on it I'd run to about 600 grit on it prior to the polish

Before:
b-smithknife2.jpg


After:
b-smithknife1.jpg


Nothing fancy, and I was just experimenting, and I guess this is a little diferent than the question being asked, I use it for miror polishing, not bringing out hamons, I don't know how it would work for that

Tony
 
Other useful powders are rouge (what the japanese use),chrome oxide,tin oxide,and cerium oxide.
 
Yuzuha, those prices look a little better in your link than the Arrowhead place I linked to, although they jump from 600 straight to 1000 without having 800 available. Unfortunately in my relatively little town there are no lapidary or rock tumbling shops. That's the way it goes. :rolleyes:

Don, did you see that last pic of the simple hamon Tai posted!? :eek:
 
Don, did you see that last pic of the simple hamon Tai posted!? :eek:[/QUOTE]

Yes I did, just amazing. Tai's one of the best, he does his own thing his own way and is knives are just great.

Don Hanson
 
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