Which diamond paste and how to use

[Andrew Pitonyak]

My first sharpening success was with "scary sharp" and sand paper. I had to do a bit of rough work so I tried a work sharp, which was OK. I recently acquired a Tormek, which I really like, but I have not yet had a good experience attempting to polish the back of a chisel, so I do that using sand paper.

I recently acquired a set of Ray Iles English Mortising chisels..

While thinking about polishing the backs, I thought that perhaps I should try diamond paste. My first thought was to purchase a hose butt strop from tools for woodworking and load that up with some fine diamond paste. The same site sells diamond paste that is water based; their claim was that the oil based stuff may have irritated their skin.

Question 1: I know that many people here have purchased diamond paste on ebay in a pack of 12. This is oil based. Any issues with irritated skin?

Question 2: It occurred to me that water based may be a problem for a leather strop.

Question 3: Any thoughts on using Maple or a steel plate for higher grits?

[Zach Dillinger]

My first sharpening success was with "scary sharp" and sand paper. I had to do a bit of rough work so I tried a work sharp, which was OK. I recently acquired a Tormek, which I really like, but I have not yet had a good experience attempting to polish the back of a chisel, so I do that using sand paper.

I recently acquired a set of Ray Iles English Mortising chisels..

While thinking about polishing the backs, I thought that perhaps I should try diamond paste. My first thought was to purchase a hose butt strop from tools for woodworking and load that up with some fine diamond paste. The same site sells diamond paste that is water based; their claim was that the oil based stuff may have irritated their skin.

Question 1: I know that many people here have purchased diamond paste on ebay in a pack of 12. This is oil based. Any issues with irritated skin?

Question 2: It occurred to me that water based may be a problem for a leather strop.

Question 3: Any thoughts on using Maple or a steel plate for higher grits?

Andrew,

One suggestion I have about diamond paste is to try Noxon's metal polish first. I've used this as a final step in my sharpening process for about a year and it works great! Even better, its really cheap. I have a very flat 3" x 9" block of quarter sawn white oak that I use as a substrate.

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I thought you might be interested in another option that costs less.

Zach

[Dale Sautter]

Hi Andrew,

Hopefully someone with practical hands-on experience will chime in...

Just today I ordered some .25 micron diamond spay from HandAmerican (http://www.handamerican.com/diamchrom.html), and talked with Keith DeGrau there... really good guy, eager and willing to answer my questions. Told me he's a woodworker too and uses hand planes to shave leather for joining into belts. Anyway, he said that applying the spray onto a leather strop for hand honing and a leather belt for powered honing will work great.

Last night I ordered a variety of diamond powders at a few different grit sizes here: http://www.lascodiamond.com/products/dmdpdr.htm When I called them about the status of my order, they too, were very helpful. Told me that if you want a water based solution to use 2 parts KY Jelly to 1 part diamond powder for a nice thick solution. He said to use Vaseline... same ratio, for an oil based solution. You can also use light oils like mineral oil or olive oil for a thinner paste. From what I gather, you apply your diamond paste/goo onto a good substrate, i.e. cast iron, maple, acrylic, etc with a small dab, start gently spreading then honing will embed the diamond into the substrate. Apparently, you just recharge every so often... I can't say yet from experience, but is what I've read up to now.

Before ordering anything, I did a google search for "monocrystalline or polycrystalline diamond+ron hock" hoping to find out which I should be looking at. Found my answer on the first hit at another forum. Elsewhere someone explained that you would want monocrystalline for an embedded application and polycrystalline for a loose grinding application.

Hey, I'm still learning... but eager to give this a go!...

<EDIT>...
I would be curious if anyone has tried mylar drafting paper, or something like it to use over a granite surface plate. Kinda exploring that option too as a substitute for hard metal substrate. Pluses - Pitfalls?...

[Rob Fisher]

...
I would be curious if anyone has tried mylar drafting paper, or something like it to use over a granite surface plate. Kinda exploring that option too as a substitute for hard metal substrate. Pluses - Pitfalls?...

Leonard Lee recommends exactly that (using mylar with a sharpening medium), in his sharpening book.

Rob

[David Weaver]

mild steel or cast iron for the diamonds. Wood, leather, etc, are too soft and are a good way to spend a lot of money.

I have tried O1 steel also, but find it to be too harsh, even annealed - I don't get the edge I want.

I like to use cast iron and mild steel for diamonds, and MDF for autosol/tormek paste and the green stuff. Leather with the green stuff on a disc sander wheel for HSS, just am getting the sense that that is far and away the best way to go with the HSS stuff that trouble stones. Cheaper and faster than fine diamonds for the final polish (geometry - initial bevel - is set up using a medium diamond hone - don't want to go directly from grinder to powered strop).

Diamonds do work fine in leather, but with power and speed on the leather. Diamonds in a hand strop are kind of a waste of diamonds.

[john brenton]

I have the ebay set of 10+ syringes of diamond paste but I wasn't all that excited with the stropping action, I use them for polishing with my dremel buffer more than anything. I prefer run of the mill white rouge on one strop, green rouge on the other, and a final stropping on treated leather.

Instead of using leather, you might want to try a paddle strop with your diamond paste . I use one as my travel strop for my straight razor. The balsa strop is cheap to make, works good for tools, can be easily refreshed with your scraper etc. It is extremely soft though, so you wouldn't want to use it for thin tools unless you were going to strop softly, which is how stropping should be done anyways.

A good resource for sharpening is a straight razor forum, as straight razor shavers are in the constant search for that impossible perfect edge.



My first sharpening success was with "scary sharp" and sand paper. I had to do a bit of rough work so I tried a work sharp, which was OK. I recently acquired a Tormek, which I really like, but I have not yet had a good experience attempting to polish the back of a chisel, so I do that using sand paper.

I recently acquired a set of Ray Iles English Mortising chisels..

While thinking about polishing the backs, I thought that perhaps I should try diamond paste. My first thought was to purchase a hose butt strop from tools for woodworking and load that up with some fine diamond paste. The same site sells diamond paste that is water based; their claim was that the oil based stuff may have irritated their skin.

Question 1: I know that many people here have purchased diamond paste on ebay in a pack of 12. This is oil based. Any issues with irritated skin?

Question 2: It occurred to me that water based may be a problem for a leather strop.

Question 3: Any thoughts on using Maple or a steel plate for higher grits?

[Wayne Morley]

I have also been considering using diamonds as a sharpening medium. I found Arrowhead Lapidary and Supply. They have a good selection of grits and supply diamonds in dry form, so you can use your own carrier. I haven't ordered anything yet, so I can't speak to there customer service.

http://www.arrowheadlapidarysupply.com/

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Excellent, thanks.... I assume, that no one had any issues with the oil based bothering their skin then...

I have looked at all of the links. Thanks for the information...

[john brenton]

I forgot to address the question of the irritation. I have not had a problem with the skin, but make sure to use a minimal amount of paste and rub it in with the ball of your palm...wash your hands with fast orange and hot water to make sure you get all of the paste out of your palms. Getting that crap in your eye can cause big problems!