Thread: Help with diamond pastes

Hello Everyone!

I just bought some diamond pastes (1, .5, .25 micron) and was wondering what kind of progression and amount of strokes I would need from these pastes?

The blade I want to use it on is currently decently sharp but nothing special. I just want to give it that little extra so I was wondering which is the safest paste to start on?

Basically I would like some help on gauging which micron to start on and how many strokes to do. Like I my straight is decently sharp and I know diamond pastes are fast cutters.

Thanks ahead of time!

What brand of razor ???? Diamond pastes are a finicky type of thing, especially the .25... some razors react exceptionally well to Diamond pastes others just flat don't like it...

Its a Wapi. I've had it for about a week. I got it from invisibleedge.

Try the .50 (start at 20 laps) and then make sure you strop the crap outta the razor after...
I have not had any experience at all with the 1.0 so yer flying on your own there.... The Wapi's that I have honed did not respond well to the .25 YMMV of course...

With all pastes remember less is more.... you can always add more to the strop it is a pain to take it off.....

So 20 on the .5 and see where it gets me?

Also, do you think stropping on some newspaper before the leather would help?

Some seem to be great fans of the newspaper strop. Likely it can't hurt whenever you choose to use it. Well inked newsprint has been likened to a super fine abrasive of perhaps a 100k equivalent.

Good luck,

I use linen before leather, always, but it is especially good after Diamond paste to smooth that edge out.... After any paste I do 50 linen laps then 100 leather laps... As to newspaper I have never really used it, so somebody else is going to have to help on that one.... I thought it came after leather, but I may very well be wrong there...

6gun,

I think one does the leather last - something's needed to get all the ink off the blade, certainly we wouldn't want do that on cheek or jowl.

I got a four sided paddle strop from Tony Miller just over a week ago, and I've used it so much already, the pasted sides are black. I have 1.0, .50, .25 and bare.

My sharpening routine was bevel setting on 12 micron 3M paper, sharpening on 5 micron, refining on 3 micron, then moving to the pasted paddle strop. I've been told I'm waaaay over doing it (and I think they're right), but I did 100 laps on the 1.0, 50 on the .50, 50 on the .25, then finally 50 on the bare side. 50 on the bare side is not *nearly* enough to get rid of the harshness. Glen suggested 100 in an earlier post, so I'm going to give that a shot today. I've used the paddle strop on four razors now, and so far I'm really impressed with how well it will finish up an edge. I'm getting blades that are passing all the sharpness tests, but the shave just feels harsh. I'm sure it's more me being a newb than a discredit to the diamond pastes, though. I have heard that it is more difficult to end up with a wire edge (from us over-zealous, honing crazy newbs) with diamond pastes.

I concur with Bruce regarding the newspaper. I have used newspaper in my honing progression routinely. I always finish with plain leather prior to shaving.

I love stropping on newspaper. I especially like stropping on newspaper rubbed with a very small amount of chrome ox. Love it. Why? to me it smooths edges well after honing, keeps and even enhances sharpness all without any overhoning issue. Last year I stropped the same razor on chrome ox rubbed newspaper 100 passes each night and shaving with that same razor each morning for one week. 700 total passes and no overhoning issues at all. The edge did not get 700 times sharper, but topped out at an optimum level of sharpness.

Plain newspaper works just fine for the final edge polishing prior to plain leather stropping but it's slow. On plain newspaper as a final polish, I'd recommend 100 passes. With chrome ox rubbed in, I'd recommend <25.

Chris L