Thread: Slurry Dulling

Originally Posted by mainaman

perceived extra keenness.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Slurries will smooth out a more keen/crisp edge.

As far as slurry actually dulling, I have only experienced it from one stone. The particles of a Special Stone do not break down.

For me, a slurry is a tool to speed up a bevel set or fine tune a edge on a finisher...but I only use it at bevel set and/or finishing.

That is the theory I have heard about wet sanding a fine finish, the small bits of paint and grit fill the paper and cut a finer, shallower finish. I recently read somewhere that polishing with metal polish where rust is being removed, the rust will aid in the polishing, as an added abrasive and not to switch to a clean cloth but to use the dirty, rusty part.

If the edge is very fine, and the bits are hard, even suspended in water, but then they are not suspended/floating, more like lubricated. I can see the slurry impacting the edge, at the same time you are still polishing the bevel and edge so it is a wash and hopefully you do more polish than impact dulling.

Add to that, thick slurry, more abrasive than water lubricated and or non-friable slurry and you could be damaging the edge as you are honing especially as it dries out. Now, if you can envision that plain paper can damage/dull an edge, certainly so could a thick slurry, which is why we dilute slurry to clear water or least thin milky finish slurry. When we look at SEM photos, edges are never laser straight.

Isn’t that the theory/ argument of diamond plate slurry vs Naugras?

A lot depend on the stone/slurry, the operator/pressure and the progression/experience of thinning the slurry.