For highly abrasion-resistant steels with heavy vanadium carbide content, like S30V, etc, it's definitely worth it for polishing, if that's what the objective is. If you're polishing simpler steels like 1095, 420HC, 154CM, etc., it may be more than you need in terms of $$ spent vs. what you're accomplishing. Simpler polishes like Flitz, Simichrome or Mother's Mag would do just as well for those, and maybe even better in some cases, as diamond can sometimes be too aggressive on some steels, at the refining stage.
Diamond paste will work much, much better on a wood strop, like balsa, basswood and others, BTW. This is also true with most other compounds as well.
David
