Happy Thanksgiving,

Am away from home w the chosen activity of.......carving.

Have taken on the activity of now trying to hone my chip carving knife:

First, the diamond paste-

Diamond Paste Grades.jpg

Now, the relatively flat basswood strip:

Diamond Paste Setup.jpg

The thing is....I suck @ this-am not able to get an edge. Finally, I am trying to just pull the knife along, consistently-giving just an edge of polish as below:

Diamond Paste Chip Knife.jpg

I guess the knife is lifted about 20*; obviously, this has no jig, so I'm SOL there.

My chosen grits are 40, 20, 5 and 0.5 micron; I sure would like it if this basswood strip thing worked, as I brought a bunch to customize for some gouges, etc also.

Any ideas beside practice, practice, practice?

Thanks, D