Thread: graphite particle size

Whilst I was doodling during one of my lessons(as a teacher, not a student!) I managed to fill in quite a large section of my book in pencil. I started daydreaming (I was supposed to be listening to my student) about honing and about the particle size of graphite.
Is it regular and one size or not? Is it hard enough to have an effect on steel?
I heard the dovo black paste is graphite - I didn't find this a great paste. Do you think it's possible to get a good polisher from pencil lead?
Sorry if this is in the wrong place - I just couldn't imagine colouring in a strop with pencil, so I thought that it applied more to honing than anything else.

I doubt any sharpening paste is graphite since graphite is more a lubricant than anything else. Graphite is xtlized carbon just like a diamond but the xtl structure is totally different with the molecules aligned in sheets rather than a dense structure like diamond. Its also very soft like a lead pencil. If your thinking partical size like grit size I don't know you can apply that concept to Graphite since honing materials are rocks with different minerals in them like garnets which can come in different sizes. Graphite is a mineral and is a homogeneous substance.

I see, oh well - no harm in asking.
Now I have to figure out where I heard that the paste was graphite!

But, then again it never hurts to try. If you had asked me if newspaper had any sharpening qualities, I probably would have told you that it was so insignificant that you shouldn't even waste your time. Go ahead and scribble all over a sheet of paper, do a hundred laps, and let us know! All you'll have wasted was a little graphite, a sheet of paper, and five minutes.

Since the major use of graphite is as a dry lubricant for metal parts, I would strongly suspect that it will not have any cutting action. Especially as I have a couple of machines lubed with graphite that have hours and hours at thousands of rpms, or in shaving terms millions of laps, without showing wear except of course when there isn't enough graphite for proper lubrication.

If you are dead set on trying it though, you can buy bottles of graphite powder at the hardware store.

I can't find the quote right now but I thought the Black paste was Boric oxide, not sure though

A note of caution from Wikipedia :

"The use of graphite is limited by its tendency to facilitate pitting corrosion in some stainless steels, and to promote galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals (due to its electrical conductivity). It is also corrosive to aluminium in presence of moisture. For this reason, the US Air Force banned its use as a lubricant in aluminium aircraft [5], and discouraged its use in aluminium-containing automatic weapons [6]. Even graphite pencil marks on aluminium parts may facilitate corrosion."

Good day,

McKie