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View Full Version : Another source of water-based diamond compound


Patrick Chase
07-12-2016, 8:14 PM
McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#lapping-compounds/=1398cvu).

Their prices are in line with other quality monocrystalline compounds (as opposed to the polycrystalline "imported mystery pastes" on Amazon etc) including the Norton water-based paste that TFWW sells, but they sell a wider range of grits. Norton also makes water-based compounds in the mid grits, but TFWW doesn't carry them and availability elsewhere can be iffy.

The natural diamond powder also looks really interesting. In theory that should hold up even better than synthetic monocrystalline pastes like DMT/Norton/PSI, and should be vastly better than polycrystalline ones.
John Kananis
07-14-2016, 12:24 PM
Good link, I may be replacing my DMT x-xourse stone soon. 45 micron is the coarsest I use right now (from TFWW) so maybe som 60 for realy heavy removal (or perhaps more coarse) - I don't think I would add any intermediary pastes though; 45 to 15 to 1/2 micron seems to work really well for me.
Patrick Chase
07-15-2016, 1:11 AM
Good link, I may be replacing my DMT x-xourse stone soon. 45 micron is the coarsest I use right now (from TFWW) so maybe som 60 for realy heavy removal (or perhaps more coarse) - I don't think I would add any intermediary pastes though; 45 to 15 to 1/2 micron seems to work really well for me.

I ordered some of the water-based version for kicks, in 8, 2, and 1 micron grits, to fill the gap between the 0.5 and 15 micron pastes in my Norton water-based set. A few remarks:

1. It's made in the US by the company formerly known as Diamond Innovations, which Sandvik bought a while back, so definitely a reputable manufacturer.

2. It seems as good in terms of life and speed/quality tradeoff as any other high-end synthetic monocrystalline paste I've tried, in line with Norton, DMT, and PSI.

3. What I said about pricing being in-line with Norton/DMT/etc is true for the higher particle sizes. McMaster's prices at 4 um and below are the best I've seen for high-quality pastes.

I think it would be reasonable to assume that the oil- and mixed-solubility versions are also safe choices.