Diamond Paste

Okay, so, I've realized I need a finer hone than what I've got right now. I'm not actually even sure what grits I have available to me, but none of them will hone anything up fine enough to shave with. :P

Lee Valley has a set of three diamond pastes, a 1, 3 and 6u tube. I can grab a bit of old MDF scrap from work to paste it on to, or maybe some clear pine if that's better...

So my question is two fold. What kind of commonly available construction materials could I put the paste on? (I'm trying save a buck here. :P)

Secondly, is any of those three pastes useless? Any one of them problematic? Also, does anyone know roughly what grit 3 and 6u would be roughly equal to in terms of stones?

I don't know many guys that use either the 3 or 6 micron and only a few that use the 1 micron. Most guys end up with hones up to or past those grits. The cheapest base that is reccommended is balsa wood.

The 6 micron is roughtly equal to a Norton 4000 grit and the three is roughly equal to the 8000 grit Norton waterstones.

If I remember correctl yI thik the Lee valley paste is oil based as well. I'm not sure how that will work, the razor diamond pastes fron Classic shaving are water based.

What are the other options?

Balsa isn't super easy to come by in these parts, so if I'm going to go looking for balsa I might as well also so know what else it works good on. :P

most craft stores carry balsa wood.