Thread: 3M micro abrasive paper

Gentlemen-

A while back I bought some microabrasive paper to sharpen my chisels but found I didn't like it for them. However, I was wondering -- what if I cut the sheet into quarters, affixed a sheet to a small flat block (we'll worry about that part later!), and used it for touch-ups instead of a barber's hone (I don't have one yet)? I think my finest grit is .5 micron. Any and all opinions on the feasibility of this idea are very welcomed, and as always, thanks a lot!

Gags

I haven't tried it myself , but another member (I can't recall who) , said they prefer this method over using hones .

Seriously no comments about honing on lapping film?

Well, over at our brothers of badger and blade is a guy called Seraphim. He is kind of a pioneer or supporter of the lapping film honing method.
He has astonishing pictures that you should take a look at if you´re interested.
The lapping film from 3M comes in either Alox or Diamond.
Both work fine, some prefer the former, I prefer the latter.

The lapping film is applied to a flat surface like floating glass, granite or a freshly lapped hone.
If your film has PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) you might not want to put it on your hone, though.

Attatched to a flat surface the lapping film will act like a normal honing stone and is perfectly capable of sharpening your razor.
I have a full progression of 5µm, 3µm and 1µm that I use for bevelsetting through to finishing


Here are some interesting links

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...light=seraphim


http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ew-source.html

I have been using 3M lapping film for some weeks now from left to right in the picture 40 micron 30 micron 15 micron 5 micron 1 micron 0.3 micron all mounted on 3 x 5/8" thick granite plates.

I found that the 15 micron which is as close as this set up gets to 1000k grit loses aggressiveness quite quickly, however I did bevel set 6 razors in one go, I now use the 30 micron to set a rough bevel then go on to the 15 to refine it.
I spend quite a while on the 5 micron grade this is roughly 4500k, as there is quite a jump from the 15, the last two are obviously finishers.
If the suppliers offered an option of 10 micron and 3 micron life would be a bit easier.
The kit I bought came as a set of six A4 sheets so when these wear out I can replace them twice, I get three strips per sheet.
I did this as an experiment because I wanted to see how this system performed on my hand tools as well as razors, I can say that I am happy with the shaves I have had using this film, and the edges under a x60 loupe compare favorably with images I have seen on here using traditional stones, all in all it's a thumbs up from me, not as a replacement for any other system but as a supplement.

the microabrasive films have been used very successfully for razor honing.
I am sure they are a lot of fun to work with, please let us know how they work for you.

For polishing, I prefer using lapping films over pastes, and, definitely over hones. The green AlOx 1micron lapping films can give me a very very comfortable shave, but they are extremely slow for hard steels, anything over 50RC hardness (without silicon, wear resistance is another factor) will take ages to have them mirror polished. I don't know if the abrasive layer is too thin or the AlOx is not hard enough. If you intend to use them for honing, be careful with the pressure, no matter the grit. Just the weight of the razor is too much for honing. You will have to apply negative pressure for acquiring the best results, just touching it is enough. For polishing purposes, the 3M diamond films are exceptional. And I'm looking for them the last two years. 3M has a minimum quantity order of 10000 pieces, and I can't really afford them. If anyone of you has any purple diamond lapping discs 1μ I'm willing to buy them.

Hi Vasilis,

I have to disagree respectfully. First of all, 50 HRC is too low to be encountered sharpening Razors.
That would be in the range of soft Iron, not hardened steel.

Secondly I have sharpened a lot of razors on the Alux and Diamond lapping film and I find them stunningly fast polishers.
I start with the 5µm Alox to set the bevel (no geometry correction, just a slight reset). The 5µm gives a neat scratch pattern.
Then I switch directly to 1µm Alox and in 20-50 passes I have a perfect polish with a super sharp edge.
I check the polish with a 10x loupe and a microscope up to 160x and direct light source.

The 1µm diamond film hardly works that much quicker, but definitely is more resistant to wear.
You can get more razors out of one sheet. Plus the shaves from the 1µm Diamond are off the hook!

If you are looking for a source for the purple diamond lapping FILM I can give you an adress. Just PM me

PM send. Don't get me wrong. For razors, the AlOx lapping films are fast enough, and for every A4 piece of 1 micron AlOx lapping film, you can finish 3 to 4 razors correctly honed. The difference can be seen if you try it for bigger pieces of steel. Big knifes or swords, made from hardened steel with 0.7% carbon or higher. Or every alloy of iron that contains Silicon over 0.5% and manganese over 12%. I hate spring steels while honing. There you can clearly see the superiority of the diamond lapping films compared to the AlOx films. While the razors are the subject of this forum, AlOx lapping films work great. And they even get a keener edge from their diamond counterparts, but diamond is faster.

I see where you are coming from. I polished a lot of swords and knifes myself and know they are a totally different animal.
There are of course steels in the craftsmanship of razormaking that are difficult to hone. You may very well know that besides silicon and manganese,
chromium as an alloying component makes for very tough and hard steels with great wear resistance. But you got the right idea,
the small size of the razor bevels make this difference hard to notice. Seraphim over at SRP did show what the diamond lapping film is capable of:
He sharpened a Zircondioxide and a Tungstencarbide-Blade to use it as a razor - with Diamond lapping film.

And btw. I find the diamond lapping film gives even smoother edges, that are just slightly less jagged than the Alox. But that may come down to personal preference

Here´s a couple of images. These show the polish of the 0.3µm film (fresh sheets). It took me less than 50 strokes on the 1µm and 20 on the 0.3µm to get there, coming from the 5µm lapping film.
I find the 0.3µm to be actually counterproductive. The polish only got slightly better (the 1µm is already pretty much perfect) and the shaves didn´t benefit from it






The razor I used was a vintage one with a fairly soft steel