Thread: Has anyone used diamond powder for light honing & stropping - Diamond Powder 0-1/2 μm

Originally Posted by Brighty83

Maybe it is rocket science!!!

First i tried a little plain distilled water and the diamonds sank to the bottom of the bottle, so i then topped it up with some of the SRD 0.5 solution hoping what ever they use might help suspend the diamonds in the liquid. I got the same results.

Below is a video of the 0.5-0 micron diamond spray mixed with water and the SRD 0.5 micron solution.

...snip...

To follow up on the "rocket science" line....
Research "Stokes law"...

The rate that a solid settles out of a suspension in a fluid
has well known dynamics. If you avoid "floculation" you can
begin to classify fine grain particles by size.

This is how the old barber hone abrasives were classified.
Today I have been reading that electrostatic fields are used
to the same purpose.

Floculation can be triggered by disolved solids i.e. salts.
After floculation filtration is easier because the clumps are
larger. Floculation does hinder some spray equipment
as the clumps can get large enough to clog the nozzle.

In this case you have diamond dust that has already been classified
so all you have to do is disperse the material well enough to spray
on a surface in a an even uniform way. Dusting the strop using a
small brush is a good trick.

Thought i would put a short demonstration of using the diamond powders on a hone.

This isn't a honing demonstration! It's simply an example of how i use the powders. (on my trusty enzo test razor lol)

By using them with this brush method it makes it very easy to judge how much you are adding and makes it easy to add more.

Interesting Any differences in the shaves noted yet ?

I have only honed one blade with the short curve and it came out nice! I don't have any of the SRD 0.25um spray to compare it to though. I only have the 1.0um and the 0.5um spray.

Even though the short curve is 0.5um if it wasn't labeled i would have said it was 0.25um

The standard curve cuts much the same as the SRD 0.5um, probably a little faster but not as fast as the 1.0um.

IMO i do find it a little different then the sprays in the sense that you can make it more or less concentrated with diamond particles and you can see exactly whats going on the hone. Maybe I'm just having more fun experimenting with it though, placebo effect

I will have to send you some one day!

What about a comparison of the stone vs the stone + diamond slurry. Sharper ? more comfortable ? Depends on the razor ?

I seem to get a better edge with the diamonds then with a nagura slurry or then with just water. <--- is that weird or normal? I seem to be getting a nice even mirror finish on the bevel when i finish with the diamond powder. I get a similar end result from the SRD 0.5um spray.

I'm suspecting the short curve 0.5um powder will give a better finish then the standard curve but i just haven't tested it enough yet... I have run out of blades to play with, they are all sitting away shave ready.

Oh, and thanks for not freaking out about me using your hone like that lol
How did you get your best results on that stone?

LOL... I was gonna say , I know that stone My best results on that stone was with a light diamond plate slurry but I never tried it with the diamond spray or powder. That Tomae is not an aggressive cutter on its own & I reserved it for certain razors because of that but seems a different animal with the diamond slurry you made. Quite fast.

I've been a bit wussy about using diamonds on my Jnats even tho the diamond powder is probably finer than most stones. The powder, I find, is identical to the sprays when used on a Spyderco UF.

You would probably see in the video too, Even though i wasn't really honing the razor (more making removing metal) i was still pushing the excess diamonds slurry off the stones during the end.

I do this when i hone with the diamond powder or spray, the closer i get to the end the less diamonds i would have on the stone. At the end I would add a little more water to the stone to get my best results.

I found also, that you can use less water with more diamonds to cut faster or more water with less diamonds to cut slower.

In the video i was making it so the water looked about the same color as the SRD spray. The camera made it look like it had lots in the dry state but there wasnt much really. But with adding it to using brush you can give it a very light tap and get minimal amounts of diamonds or tap it hard to get lots, like removing the ash from a cigar lol

But!!!..... I should be listening to what you do! YOU are the honemaster in Australia!

I haven't tried that stone with a diamond plate yet. I will do next time.

Don't listen to me mate. I'm likely to change my mind about how I do things from day to day
My philosophy, or one that I borrowed, is, it's not what you do but what effect you have.

I just tried using the slurry from a DMT and i completely lost the mirror effect on the bevel and the spine of my enzo.

It seems to cuts faster then the diamonds doing it like that though, the slurry turned black in only 6 full strokes (each side).

I went back to the standard curve powder and the mirror edge came back in about 12 strokes (each side).

Now, it still had a nice edge and probably was just as sharp it just lost the shine.