Edge Pro Apex and diamond spray?

Bronco

Bronco

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I'll admit to being one of those folks who occasionally likes to spend an hour or so getting one of my knives up to a level of "show off" sharpness. For the better part of a decade now, the Edge Pro Apex has been an invaluable aid in making this possible. Presently, my Edge Pro arsenal goes all the way up to 6000 grit adhesive tapes on the glass hone which allows for some pretty wicked polished edges.

But in the spirit of knife nuts everywhere who love to push the envelope, I decided to take the plunge and order a bottle of the Hand American diamond spray. As I'm sure has been discussed here, the 1 micron stuff equates to roughly a 15K grit, and the 1/2 micron, of course, being about double that. The question then struck me, do you think it would be possible to mount an old worn out 6000 grit tape on the glass hone, put it in the Edge Pro and then spray the diamond solution directly on that to further polish the edge? The obvious advantage would be the ability to maintain the extremely precise bevel angle.
 
That worked quite well for me.

Today, however, I prefer to use a balsa wood "strop" glued to an EP blank. Use the draw stroke only. (edge trailing.) It's slow and tedious, of course, but IMHO, the results make it very worthwhile.
 
I use 3 micron paste on worn 2k tape and 1 micron paste on worn 3k tape. Works well.

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Ben Dover said:
That worked quite well for me.

Today, however, I prefer to use a balsa wood "strop" glued to an EP blank. Use the draw stroke only. (edge trailing.) It's slow and tedious, of course, but IMHO, the results make it very worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Sounds promising. :)

With respect to your balsa wood technique, when mounting the balsa on the blank, is it difficult to achieve the same overall thickness as the other stones, or do you reset the angle adjustment?
 
The balsa that I have is extremely close to the thickness of the EP stones. (If you purchase it just a bit thicker than the stones, it is easily thinned with 320 grit sandpaper.) I examine the blade with a 10X jeweler's loupe after a few strokes, and if necessary, re-adjust the angle.

Singularity 35--- try .5 micron, or even .25 on a well worn 6K tape.
 
I mainly only use my edge pro to thin my edges and then touch the edge up with something else usually creating a micro bevel. But I have used just a piece of masking tape with the spray on it mounted on a blank. I have to adjust the angle but I have to adjust it some between a few of my stones so its not a big deal. Works well for me and the tape has enough texture to hold the spray until it dries.
 
Ben Dover said:
The balsa that I have is extremely close to the thickness of the EP stones. (If you purchase it just a bit thicker than the stones, it is easily thinned with 320 grit sandpaper.) I examine the blade with a 10X jeweler's loupe after a few strokes, and if necessary, re-adjust the angle.

Singularity 35--- try .5 micron, or even .25 on a well worn 6K tape.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea.
 
Ben Dover said:
Today, however, I prefer to use a balsa wood "strop" glued to an EP blank. Use the draw stroke only. (edge trailing.) It's slow and tedious, of course, but IMHO, the results make it very worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I am using the same method but only with balsa wood. I do cut 2 pieces of the same size like the EZ blanks and glue them together (one piece I amke a bit shorter). It's great and cheap. You can put diamond paste on it or any other abrasive. Works great.
 
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