Thread: Bio-Diam Diamond Pastes: First Experience

Originally Posted by matt321

Maybe the intent for recommending the 6m for newly honed blades is to insure that the blade edge is "seated" or "profiled" for the strop interface. The hone is flat and rigid, while the strop is slightly flexible. The finer pastes can't remove enough steel for the edge to conform, so the 6m is used first. This is only done once after each honing

I bought a 6-foot by 1.5 inch strap of leather from Tandy for about $15. Now I need to find something to make the paddles out of. The store I visited had latigo straps of the same size for about $25. The ones I looked at were very uneven on the surface so there would have been about a 40% cull from each piece.

Good point, Nice to hear from TI?

Sure seems like this system would compete with finishing hones. It would only make sense to hone to about 6 microns and then let the Bio-Diam take over from there.

Originally Posted by matt321

Sure seems like this system would compete with finishing hones. It would only make sense to hone to about 6 microns and then let the Bio-Diam take over from there.

I was talking to a honmeister, he is very good one . he always used hones only ,untill a year ago he started using 0.5,0.25, diamond paste. He has now stopped using it, as many of his customers complained of razor burn . They said the shaves were to harsh. he now stopped using it and has run test on 20 razors. The results of the hones were smoother and just as sharp, this is what he found. I will keep rehoning i will just finish on the 1.0,0.25 then cr.ox see how that feels.. I use the rasoir ti pate after coticule now and then the edge is always ultra smooth, never harsh. I'm a bit gutted as it's not cheap stuff. At least i have tryed it , so far i have to say i would'nt recomend it. Out of the 4 years i have been honing these are the harsist edgees i have tryed.

Matt have you got the paste?

Quik up date ,i shaved to day of coticule honed razor followed by, 15 laps on 6m 10 on 3m 7, laps on 1.0 and then 5, 0.25. Finished on cro.ox 10 laps. The shave was much smoother no where near as harsh. The differance being the cr.ox. the cr.ox must take the bite out of the edge . As mentioned . I will try agian on my other razor. The razor was plenty sharp enough and much smoother. The first time i tryed with out cr.ox the same razor was defanatly harsher, i did more laps on the finer grits. I would say its best to start out at no more than 5 /10 laps at the max but finish with 10 to 15 on cr.ox to smooth diamond edge out. Do more if needed.

Thank you for the post!

I think this makes a lot of sense for TI.
Their new steel is very hard and honemasters are rare.

This is a reasonable product for their new customers and perhaps
some of us old ones too.

I think we are spoiled by our vendors that ship shave ready
blades and have such reasonably priced sharpening services.

However, I do not believe it will cure HAD.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

I think we are spoiled by our vendors that ship shave ready blades and have such reasonably priced sharpening services.

I must confess that I have no idea how modern factory edges are compared to honed ones.

In principle however, I respectfully disagree - an item sold to one specific purpose should be able to do it properly, before any repairing. As an analog, When I buy a new car, it had better run or we'd be having Words. Taking it to somebody (and paying out of your own pocket) who repairs it should not be the status quo, IMO. It's a different thing however if it is sold a little cheaper (compared to "honed, shave-ready") as "not shave-ready".

We have it good in the sense that we know what is shave-ready and who can hone them, but somebody who buys from a small cutlery-vendor somewhere should get a shave-ready edge too.

I don't have this new stuff, but I am experimenting with TI rasoir ti pate. I thought the new stuff might be good for the new TI razors which are very hard steel.

i have been using the rasoir, and i use it after honing and for touch ups. IT WORKS EXALLANT. i use on canvas strop. itryed paddle. canvas strop is the bestwith out a dout.

Originally Posted by matt321

Maybe the intent for recommending the 6m for newly honed blades is to insure that the blade edge is "seated" or "profiled" for the strop interface. The hone is flat and rigid, while the strop is slightly flexible. The finer pastes can't remove enough steel for the edge to conform, so the 6m is used first. This is only done once after each honing.

Spot on. In the instructions that are sent out with each new purchase or can be downloaded for free from quite a few places including my own site and it does say that the 6 micron is for 'heavy refining of the edge direct from the hone; aggressive action or restoring.'

The point I was trying to make to Gary (and sitting on the hard shoulder with artics thundering past is not the best place for a quiet chat!) was that starting at 6 m is a bit of a belt-and-braces approach. I have found that using this on new razors does indeed 'seat' the edge well for the finer grits and although it may 'knock-back' a very finely honed edge it is useful to use on razors that you may not be too familiar with (as I get all the time) - I would say for your own known razors 3 micron would be coarse enough for normal use.

A point was made regarding edge harshness and again TI say in their instructions that 'a razor edge can be too sharp, the result of over-sharpening with diamond pastes. Such an edge will catch on every surface imperfection in the skin, causing irritation and razor burn (my bold text). They also say that Chromox 'when properly used on a paddle or hanging strop, smoothes or takes the "bite" out of a very sharp, aggressive edge. Over use will decrease the closeness of the shave; proper use will give you the smoothest edge that you've ever experienced, with no loss of shave closeness.'

There's a lot more in there and I would recommend that ANYONE using this system reads the instructions - that's why TI wrote them, to help users get the best out of what is after all not an inexpensive product. The instructions can be downloaded by clicking the link just above the diamond paste images on this page - it's free and in PDF format. I have been using these pastes for a while now and can report that, if used as suggested, they produce a very fine and smooth edge that I would find hard to equal by other methods.

The first 3 razors i tryed it on, i did'nt finish on cr.ox, i have since and there was a big differance. So basicly the 6m prepares the edge for the finer grits, which makes sense.
I have quite a thew razors i can freshly hone, i will repeat with the paste and i'm sure with experimenting i will improve . The sharpness is sharp as can get , just the smoothness, i may of over done it on the finer grits.

Steve when you finish with cr.ox how many laps are you doing?