Thread: paste hone equvilent

Originally Posted by grottolord

does anyone know the hone grit equivelnt of 0.25 and 0.5 diamond paste?when using them are they equvilent to say a belgian when finishing off after the 4000/8000 norton?
Thanks for any input
Mike

1 micron is about 14K, .5 micron about 50K and .25 micron about 100K.

So, the 1 micron is roughly the same as a coticule gritwise.

Originally Posted by wdl1

Here's a chart I found posted by Yuzuha on Bladeforums that might be of interest:

http://members.cox.net/~yuzuha/jisgrit1.html

Saved that one on my comp. Thanks

thanks joe thinking the .5 .25 set up is almost too fine
gonna go with 1/.5
also gonna try plain balsa see if its like plain leather
any thoughts on leather types on a handamerisa strop
when kieth getts caught up im getting one from him
getting conflicting info about surfaces to use

My bench hone has plain leather and it's turning out to be a great medium for the abrasive. Latigos are probably overtreated for this use.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

My bench hone has plain leather and it's turning out to be a great medium for the abrasive. Latigos are probably overtreated for this use.

Both Tony and handamerican seem to think that a slightly rougher natural surface woould be better for paste.

Originally Posted by grottolord

thanks joe thinking the .5 .25 set up is almost too fine
gonna go with 1/.5
also gonna try plain balsa see if its like plain leather
any thoughts on leather types on a handamerisa strop
when kieth getts caught up im getting one from him
getting conflicting info about surfaces to use

I think you're right, as a practical matter.

I've used pastes on leather and wood, and at least IME pasted leather is faster but pasted wood puts on a better edge. I've had a CrO2-on-leather paddle since I started, but didn't really feel the love for CrO2 until I put some on a wooden board as an experiment. I can refresh my blades with 5-7 laps on CrO2-on-leather or 20-25 laps on CrO2-on-wood, but the wood paddle seems to leave a sharper and stronger edge.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I've used pastes on leather and wood, and at least IME pasted leather is faster but pasted wood puts on a better edge. I've had a CrO2-on-leather paddle since I started, but didn't really feel the love for CrO2 until I put some on a wooden board as an experiment. I can refresh my blades with 5-7 laps on CrO2-on-leather or 20-25 laps on CrO2-on-wood, but the wood paddle seems to leave a sharper and stronger edge.

That's interesting sharper and stronger don't typically go together. It's also interesting that the same paste on wood requires so many more reps than on leather.

I think the wood just doesn't hold as much paste as the leather, so it's cutting slower. I've got a theory as to why the edge seems stronger as well, but I'm not sure how to test it.

Originally Posted by mparker762

I think the wood just doesn't hold as much paste as the leather, so it's cutting slower. I've got a theory as to why the edge seems stronger as well, but I'm not sure how to test it.

Just a thought, but perhaps you should try cleaning your leather before applying the paste? I recall reading before that there was some testing done (pretty informal mind you) that showed that a freshly pasted and cleaned leather strop worked better and produced more crisp edges. If I recall correctly, this was due in part to most people just reapplying the CrO over the original paste and the existing paste before is "contaminated" with small metal pieces from previous sharpening sessions. This may account for your findings (or at least present another variable to consider) since the freshly pasted wood would be void of metal bits.

If you want to test for this alone, then I may suggest stropping using loaded newsprint. I've had good success pasting some newsprint with CrO, then using either on a flat table top or on top of a leather paddle strop so I don't have to clean it afterwards.