How much (or little) diamond paste

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ks_wayward_son

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Apr 15, 2021
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Going to try loading up some basswood with a 5000 grit diamond paste (50% concentration). Got a little syringe tube of it and I was wondering how much it would take to load up the basswood? Also, is there a method to "loading" it? Do you apply wet with water, dry, reapply a few times to fully "load" the medium before using it? Thanks.
 
less is more. I use cardboard for stripping with paste.

when it turns black move to a new section asap.

eta: I load up the cardboard with less than a pea and rub it in. the. strop over that area.

I'd wait for others to chime in.

that's just how I do it.
 
Tinfoil hat timmy got it in one. Less is more, a pea sized amount is all you need, don't over load it. As far as spreading it over what ever you are using i use a small putty spatula, but i already had one, but they are ideal. You can always add more, but if you overload it, pain in the you know what to remove it. I place several small dabs all over the material i am using then spread it thin over the whole area, this is ideal when you have a syringe which you have.
 
As said, less is more. I have a BESS tester and was playing with it a while ago to see how low of a score I could get. My first try with water-based diamond sprays on leather strops got me a 40 score. I then put too much on those strops and my score dropped to 80-110, and all I did was strop with the overloaded strops. I then washed off the excess diamond and tried it again, with a score of 40 again. This is with a guided system and only a few passes so angles were consistent and I didn't overuse them. Too much will certainly polish the bevels better but it detracts from the keenness of the apex.
 
If you see the paste coming off and clinging to your blade's edge, you've applied too much. Really doesn't take much to do the job, and any excess won't hold to the strop anyway. That's when it comes off and makes a mess on your blade's edge. I've done it many times and it's easy to fall into the mind-trap thinking "just a little more...". Then it's "Oops, too much." Always kicked myself when that happened.

If you can see the dark swarf trails on the wood after you've made a pass or two on it, that's how you know it's enough and the strop is working. No need to apply any more.
 
The first time I applied diamond paste (8k - 200k range) to my strops I made a complete mess; way too much and it was clumpy. Massive pita and you could see it deposit on the knife edge... They got sharper but I knew I hadn't realised the potential of the medium.

I cleaned it all off and just used my finger to rub it into the strops. I went for the bare minimum to cover them, left them to dry and what a difference, much smoother motion, zero mess on the blade and scary sharpness ensued.
 
i find the finish of the wood important.
i finish beechwood to a shiny finish then apply polishing compound , which is faster cutting than my diamond pastes.
excess paste yeah not helpful
 
Revisiting this thread to discuss grit range. Right now I am using diamond plates up to 3000 gr. for initial sharpening and then finishing up with a 5000 paste strop. I find this gives me a decent toothy edge and can finally get it somewhat shaving sharp which is good for me being a noob. Would I benefit from an even higher strop grit, say in the 12,000 to 14,000 range without losing the good working edge I want? I'm not trying to see "how far I can take it" just even better edge refinement. Thanks.
 
ks_wayward_son said:
Revisiting this thread to discuss grit range. Right now I am using diamond plates up to 3000 gr. for initial sharpening and then finishing up with a 5000 paste strop. I find this gives me a decent toothy edge and can finally get it somewhat shaving sharp which is good for me being a noob. Would I benefit from an even higher strop grit, say in the 12,000 to 14,000 range without losing the good working edge I want? I'm not trying to see "how far I can take it" just even better edge refinement. Thanks.
Click to expand...
If your goal is a very high polish, take it as far and as fine as you can afford to go.

If you'd like to retain some degree of toothy bite for a working edge, I'd suggest not going much finer than 6 micron or so. And use that minimally as well.

Used on wood, I've found DMT's 3-micron paste (8000 mesh, by DMT's own rating) to bring a high polish very quickly. If you like polished, that's a very good thing. But my preferences have shifted in a more toothy direction. So, if I use diamond compound at all, the 6-micron (4000 mesh) threshold is as far as I'm willing to take it. And even then, I limit the passes to maybe one or two per side. Diamond will clean up the edge very, very quickly at very light pressure. Anything more than a couple passes or so per side will be overkill and can erase much of that nice toothy bite very quickly.

OR, instead of a progression, sharpen on the hones to your preference for toothy bite. THEN, use something like 1-micron paste very, very minimally to just clean up the edge.

With anything diamond anymore, I've generally just stopped at the hone itself (usually 325 or 600). Any stropping I do after that, is just on a bare strop of leather or denim.
 
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