Last week, there was a thread where I chided the titman/trend gimmicks for diamond hones (i'm sticking to that) and the slick marketing to make it out like there may be something better about them than typical $20 milled plates from china. There may be a small difference, getting the stuff straight from china rather than spec made and sold with lots of middlemen is far better for woodworkers.
Well, not direct from china, rather direct via someone who ground ships a big blog of plates over here and then uses a fulfillment service to make a small mark up.
But while talking about that, I mentioned that industrial diamonds seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper. I found what was listed as 1 micron, 100 grams (!!) for $13.50 shipped. However, a closer look showed it as 1-3 and labeled as "steel bonding grade". more common for me is to find packages in 100 carats (about 20 grams) for $10 with a slightly narrower rating.
I bought a bag of the stuff, anyway.
.....
What ensued today in my 10% experimentation rule (I experiment 10% of the time, make the other 90% more or less) was seeing how fine the flour would be on a cast lap and then on MDF or hardwood. MDF is what I have handy so that was it.
Cast is FAR more aggressive, especially with fresh diamonds. I chose something relatively small so as not to waste time - a #18 block plane iron.
...
First, a calibration picture before see others - the slurried 8000 grit waterstone edge. Judge the rest visually based on this:
Slurry edges are slightly less good than non-slurry due to tumbling around the edge, but this is a reasonably fine edge
Well, not direct from china, rather direct via someone who ground ships a big blog of plates over here and then uses a fulfillment service to make a small mark up.
But while talking about that, I mentioned that industrial diamonds seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper. I found what was listed as 1 micron, 100 grams (!!) for $13.50 shipped. However, a closer look showed it as 1-3 and labeled as "steel bonding grade". more common for me is to find packages in 100 carats (about 20 grams) for $10 with a slightly narrower rating.
I bought a bag of the stuff, anyway.
.....
What ensued today in my 10% experimentation rule (I experiment 10% of the time, make the other 90% more or less) was seeing how fine the flour would be on a cast lap and then on MDF or hardwood. MDF is what I have handy so that was it.
Cast is FAR more aggressive, especially with fresh diamonds. I chose something relatively small so as not to waste time - a #18 block plane iron.
...
First, a calibration picture before see others - the slurried 8000 grit waterstone edge. Judge the rest visually based on this:
Slurry edges are slightly less good than non-slurry due to tumbling around the edge, but this is a reasonably fine edge