Recommendation? Diamond Paste - advice sought

Pilsner

Pilsner

Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
4,464
Hi Guys,

I was hoping to get advice from some of you experts on diamond paste/spray. I don’t really know where to start in terms of microns and all the rest! :oops:

I’m looking to get a more polished edge on more wear resistant steels - S90V, S110V etc. At the moment I strop with old fashioned jeweller’s rouge on one side and just leather on the other. I also have a strop loaded with green.... erm... stuff? You can see how ignorant I am!

These strops do the job on maintaining a good edge but I would like to take it a stage further now. If I invested in another two sided leather strop, what would you recommend as diamond based products, allowing for a different one on each side? I have to watch the pennies a bit at the moment, so it would be limited to two for now.

Thank you in advance, and hope you are all having a good weekend. :)

Tom
 
Well I can tell you from experience the green and bare leather probably isn't doing much (I tried it on s110v). The diamond will be more effective, I personally wanted a coarser grit so I got a 6micron DMT diamond which works well for me.

What stones are you usually sharpening with? I imagine that will help the more knowledgeable folks on diamond pastes to make a recommendation.
 
Bob6794 said:
Well I can tell you from experience the green and bare leather probably isn't doing much (I tried it on s110v). The diamond will be more effective, I personally wanted a coarser grit so I got a 6micron DMT diamond which works well for me.

What stones are you usually sharpening with? I imagine that will help the more knowledgeable folks on diamond pastes to make a recommendation.
Click to expand...
Thanks mate, this is a good start. I’m sharpening on diamond stones and ceramic. So the apex is not a problem. I am looking to experiment with more polish on the edges. I can get them razor sharp, no problem there. Do you think, given I am looking at polish, that 6 microns may be too much for me? I genuinely don’t know! I am beginning to see a money pit opening up... :eek:

For the restrictive purposes of my OP, what microns would you recommend for polishing those wear resistant edges? I do accept that in some cases a toothier edge will be more appropriate, however this is literally just to amuse myself, and to find out for myself. I enjoy that sort of thing.

Also, any advice on whether spray, paste, water soluble and so on would be very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to respond, I am really grateful. :)
 
I don't polish most my blades to a mirror finish but a light stropping after 600 to 800 grit stones ... I will use a 6 micron diamond paste and work up to a 1 Micron for a more polished edge ...

the 6 micron I can have a bit more polished edge while still maintaining a toothy edge.

I'm sure those with far more knowledge will chime in ... but I use a 6 micron to finish most edges and that hits the sweet spot for me ...

and occasionally I work up to a 1 micron diamond paste on a slipjoint and a small Sebenza just for those times I want a nice looking knife ... and they won't be used for alot of cutting ... but look nice especially this time of the year to help open gifts and such.

I prefer the paste over the spray ... but I know many prefer the spray and it may be easier to apply ... but a putty knife and thin coat of paste is what I use. Think it's just personal preference.

Oh and there are some other nice pastes and sprays but I use DMT.
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
I don't polish most my blades to a mirror finish but a light stropping after 600 to 800 grit stones ... I will use a 6 micron diamond paste and work up to a 1 Micron for a more polished edge ...

the 6 micron I can have a bit more polished edge while still maintaining a toothy edge.

I'm sure those with far more knowledge will chime in ... but I use a 6 micron to finish most edges and that hits the sweet spot for me ...

and occasionally I work up to a 1 micron diamond paste on a slipjoint and a small Sebenza just for those times I want a nice looking knife ... and they won't be used for alot of cutting ... but look nice especially this time of the year to help open gifts and such.

I prefer the paste over the spray ... buy I know many prefer the spray and it may be easier to apply ... but a putty knife and thin coat of paste is what I use. Think it's just personal preference.
Click to expand...
That is a ‘diamond’ response, if you can pardon the bad pun. Thank you. :)

Do you think it would make any sense to move from 6 to 1 with nothing intermediate? The money pit is now gaping wider, and I am thinking two more double sided strops. Eek! Please tell me I don’t have to do that... :eek:
 
I would start with a 1 micron then .1. Diamond is REALLY abrasive and I found 2.5 micron to be dangerously fast with a leather strop, it would start rounding the apex after just 3 passes. The knife was still sharp but I had to keep increasing the angle to shave with as I tried to polish the bevel with the 2.5 micron diamond strop. This is with a guided sharpener so the angle was consistent. Just my experience, others may vary.
 
Pilsner said:
That is a ‘diamond’ response, if you can pardon the bad pun. Thank you. :)

Do you think it would make any sense to move from 6 to 1 with nothing intermediate? The money pit is now gaping wider, and I am thinking two more double sided strops. Eek! Please tell me I don’t have to do that... :eek:
Click to expand...

I think you could jump some steps yes ... it just may take a bit longer to remove scratches ...

but I have read posts where people go from a 600 or 800 grit stone straight to a 1 micron diamond paste ... they seem to get decent result from what their posts said.

and you may want to consider buying a balsa wood or basswood strop ... less expensive than a good quaility strop and firmer to help avoid convexing your edge if you don't want to.

You can even just glue a piece of old blue jeans to a board and get good results ... you don't have to spend a fortune on strops.
 
If I finish my edge at 400grit or 1200+ , I strop on .5 micron DMT paste on smooth leather.

The other is side of the strop is bare suede for a final finish.
 
Screw the diamond emulsion's they are to much money for what you get,look at these diamond paste's I have used them and they are great.

Diamond paste as a standard comes with 4 carat's of diamonds in each container,you can order this stuff in 4,6,8,10,12,16 carat diamond witch is what you want for more wear resistant steels.

I use 8 and 10 carat paste's and they work great don't buy anything higher then 10 from what I have read a lot that have gotten higher then 10 carat feel the diamond tend to clump together more making for a larger scratch pattern.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-3-2-7...=item282fa4a2ea:g:zfcAAOSwsW9Y2jUP:rk:17:pf:0
 
wade7575 said:
Screw the diamond emulsion's they are to much money for what you get,look at these diamond paste's I have used them and they are great.

Diamond paste as a standard comes with 4 carat's of diamonds in each container,you can order this stuff in 4,6,8,10,12,16 carat diamond witch is what you want for more wear resistant steels.

I use 8 and 10 carat paste's and they work great don't buy anything higher then 10 from what I have read a lot that have gotten higher then 10 carat feel the diamond tend to clump together more making for a larger scratch pattern.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4pcs-3-2-7...=item282fa4a2ea:g:zfcAAOSwsW9Y2jUP:rk:17:pf:0
Click to expand...

The paste in the link is NORMAL concentration. Which means that the fine pastes has only 4 carats of mono diamonds in 40g can. This is a standard industrial concentration. Coarser pastes contain more carats because there are less individual particles per same weight of abrasive. High concentration pastes have 10ct per 40g.

Now let's do some math. This paste costs 13.55 dollars. So basically you are paying 13.55 for 4 carats of diamonds in a far from the perfect waxy carrier. Hand American spray contains 10 carats of mono diamond and costs 25 dollars. So you are getting a much better bang for your buck if you getting American product. You will get more of a much better product for less money.
 
I was going to mention what you said about the paste's in the link being 4 carat but this same seller will also sell you the concentration's I mentioned.

I have been getting better result's with higher concentration diamond paste's then with emulsion's now whether that has anything to do with me using ash wood for strop's and also MDF I don't know.


M-S-T said:
The paste in the link is NORMAL concentration. Which means that the fine pastes has only 4 carats of mono diamonds in 40g can. This is a standard industrial concentration. Coarser pastes contain more carats because there are less individual particles per same weight of abrasive. High concentration pastes have 10ct per 40g.

Now let's do some math. This paste costs 13.55 dollars. So basically you are paying 13.55 for 4 carats of diamonds in a far from the perfect waxy carrier. Hand American spray contains 10 carats of mono diamond and costs 25 dollars. So you are getting a much better bang for your buck if you getting American product. You will get more of a much better product for less money.
Click to expand...
 
Pilsner said:
Thank you guys, I am learning a lot here.
Click to expand...

The best thing I learned about s110v in particular is that it likes a toothy edge. Specifically, sharpen only to DMT coarse (325 grit) and then go to a 1 micron diamond hard strop to deburr and add the tiniest of microbevels. It doesn’t take much stropping.

That leaves a really clean apex with ridiculously good aggression. I’ve since tried it on several high vanadium steels (s30v, s35vn) and had good results.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top