Thread: Diamond Paste for Newbies = Greatness!

Hey Guys,
I have not been at this str8 shaving thing very long, but had figured a few things out about honing on my barber's hone and stropping properly. I was getting really close on the keeness of the blade but needed a bit more. I ordered some .5 and .25 micron diamond paste from Classic, (waited until dry) and PRESTO! The difference was clear, quick and easy. Strongly recommended that all Noobs consider pasted strops in their sharpening arsenal. Just my experience, but for me it was an awesome purchase.

Anyone else had such experiences?

Dewey,
That is exactly why I am a fan of them. It's an easy way for a newbie to get and keep a sharp edge and still makes a nice addition to a hone if going that route. They won't keep an edge going forever but they will buy you time, especially if you don't want to learn or invest in a hone.


Any issues with the diamond paste drying too slowly? I'm wondering if Amplex changed their base as mine seem to take twice as long now and on really damp days they feel a little sticky again.

I'm switching over to the diamond sprays next week on all my pre-pasted stuff.

Tony

Pasted strops are great for that extra bump in sharpness. Good work!

I've also been playing with using newspaper as a finishing step, and it works really well, too. There are some good threads about how to use it in the honing forum, I think. It's worth a try.

What did you apply the paste to?

Josh

Tony -
Diamond sprays? Sounds interesting. I guess they're only available to "the industry"? Should be great for even application.
As far as drying time goes, I followed the directions recently posted by MParker in one of the threads that said to use about a 1mm wide diagonal line of paste from the syringe and then to spread the paste in X patterns down the strop and then fill in the rest of the area. I did that about 4pm yesterday and had a dry surface at 8am today. Not bad.

Josh -
I had a large 3" wide cowhide strop that I made from oak tanned strap from Tandy. I applied the paste to the rough side of the leather as prescribed by several paste devotees. They say the draw is less stiff on the split side and that it holds the paste better, too.

DEwey,
The diamond sprays are used in the Lapidary hobby in faceting gemstones. It is diamond powder suspended in a liquid and put into a pump spray bottle. Crystalite brand is where I first started with it after seeing a mention here a year of so ago.
The Crystalite people wee not dealer friendly though so I am bottling my own in 0.25 through 3.0 micron grits and 6 carat per 2 oz. concentration. Spray it on, let it sit a few minutes till the carrier evaporates and it's ready to use. Refreshing is easy too as a couple of pumps on the bottle are all that's needed every month or so. The initial application needs several more coats though to build up enough abrasive.
The pastes were fine till they got so slow drying for me.

Tony

PS - I forgot to mention in my original post that my strop is a long-ee soooo I used the 24" of stropping area to my advantage, installing 2 handles (one at each end) and split the strop down the middle (with a FANCY black line and very attractive .25 and .5 micron labels at each end ) giving me 12 inches of pasted strop on only one side of leather. The other side is the finished smooth leather.

My TM pasted strop was still tacky t days after I took it out of the bag. Grabs the blad still in spots, those spots are all black now. Should I use a wet finger to smooth out the "Clumps"?

The strop I got has 1.0 and .5 on it. It's fantastic, I'm thinking of getting another just like it with .25 and plain leather so I have a range of grits. Anyone do that?

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

My TM pasted strop was still tacky t days after I took it out of the bag. Grabs the blad still in spots, those spots are all black now. Should I use a wet finger to smooth out the "Clumps"?

The strop I got has 1.0 and .5 on it. It's fantastic, I'm thinking of getting another just like it with .25 and plain leather so I have a range of grits. Anyone do that?

I did! You can, too!

Chef,
I think wetting the finger and smoothing would be a good idea.

I have put diamond paste Polish 0.5 in a piece of balsa. it gives a smoothness the wonderful shaved one. To do it with balsa is cheap and effective. 3 euros for 100cm x 10cm x 0.6 cm balsa and 6 dollars for 10 gr. diamond paste polish.

Greetins from Barcelona