Diamond Hand Lap?

[ddavelarsen]

Every time I see diamond hand laps on sale I have the same question - would they be useful for hand finishing a blade in the manner of stone finishing? I tried to provide a link to the product but Travers' website doesn't work that way. If I can find a link somewhere else I'll follow up with that.

Part two of this question is how is micron grain size is related to the grit denomination I can only think in? The 3M hand laps range from 250 - 20 micron. What's that mean in terms of grit size?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[ddavelarsen]

Hmmm... All the examples I've found say they're "flexible" hand laps, which would make them totally unsuited for this job anyway. Here's a link to the product though:

Diamond Hand Lap

Though a flexible version is out of the question I still wonder whether a solid version of the same thing would be useful?

 

[peter nap]

Dave, I have a few that I bought from Lowe's. The red ones are supposed to be the fine and I think they make a green that I don't have. This may be finer yet.

These fold and are rigid. I use the red one quite often to remove coarse scratches from blades that are a pain to work on the grinder. They take a little work but work quite well.

It's also a good way to cheat on a Japanese grind. Work them down with the diamond laps and save the good stones for the finish rub.

 

[Mike Hull]

Here's a chart. The second one is just something I ran across looking for the chart.

http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/roche/rec.wood.misc/grit.sizes.html

http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/manufacturing_industry/abrasives/node_V1MTKD8BBLge/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_1NJV8BGHDNge/theme_us_superabrasivesolutions_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html

 

[ddavelarsen]

Thanks gents. Don I had never thought of looking for them locally, I'll give that a shot. Mike I noticed that the diamond belts specify use for non-ferrous metals. I wonder if this has to do with the backing. Anyway, this is what I was looking for, I think I'm going to give em a try soon. I'm going to add a Micron column to my grit comparison chart too.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Woodcraft Supply has DMT 10" by 3" diamond stones.They have a different grit on each side.Two stones will get you from :
60 micron/220 grit -black
45 micron/325 grit - blue
25 micron/600 grit - red
9 micron/1200 grit - green
They are very rigid and do a great japanese grind by hand.After the green stone go to a 4000 grit and 8000 grit rubbing stone.If you are a purist go to rouge on canvas.
You could even use diamond lapping compounds up to 100,000 grit.

 

[ddavelarsen]

That sounds like just the ticket, thanks very much. I'll check to see if we have a Woodcraft Store here and failing that see whether any other woodworking store might have them too. Thanks for the grit comparison.