Gem lapidary diamond powder for suspension/slurry?

huntyukon

huntyukon

Joined
Dec 30, 2023
Messages
185
Hi folks,
I’m planning on making my own diamond slurry. I have a couple of different options of diamond powder at completely different prices. Option one would be some high end monocrystalline powder from a company that makes (amongst other things) lapping solutions and pastes for the metallurgical industry.
Option 2 would be 2 to 3 times cheaper and is monocrystalline powder that is meant for lapping gemstones. I’m wondering if that would still be good enough to make my own slurry. Obviously quality control is very different between the 2 and I’m sure particle size distribution is quite different as well, but to what extent I don’t know. I’m wondering if anyone has used cheaper lapidary diamond powders to make their own slurry or paste and to what results. I’d be grateful for any input.

Thanks in advance, guys.
 
Honestly the cheap stuff should be good enough, depending on your application. What you're mostly looking for in most circumstances is just the hardness and APPROXIMATELY correct grit size. As long as you get that (and you should with the budget grit) you'll probably will get something of sufficient quality.
 
Thank you. It doesn’t say anything about the hardness of the diamonds, but I’ve been wanting to give them a call and ask. It just says that it’s suitable for abrasives with metal bond, ceramic bond and electroplated products, processing hard alloys, glass, ceramics, gem stone etc. So I would assume the hardness would be good enough for my needs. For the price maybe I should just give it a try and see how it does.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Honestly the cheap stuff should be good enough, depending on your application. What you're mostly looking for in most circumstances is just the hardness and APPROXIMATELY correct grit size. As long as you get that (and you should with the budget grit) you'll probably will get something of sufficient quality.
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Thank you. It doesn’t say anything about the hardness of the diamonds, but I’ve been wanting to give them a call and ask. It just says that it’s suitable for abrasives with metal bond, ceramic bond and electroplated products, processing hard alloys, glass, ceramics, gem stone etc. So I would assume the hardness would be good enough for my needs. I’d be making a slurry for stropping anything up to K390. For the price maybe I should just give it a try and see how it does.
 
huntyukon said:
Thank you. It doesn’t say anything about the hardness of the diamonds, but I’ve been wanting to give them a call and ask. It just says that it’s suitable for abrasives with metal bond, ceramic bond and electroplated products, processing hard alloys, glass, ceramics, gem stone etc. So I would assume the hardness would be good enough for my needs. I’d be making a slurry for stropping anything up to K390. For the price maybe I should just give it a try and see how it does.
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By hardness I mean "the hardness of diamond as opposed to silicon carbide/aluminum oxide" which means it'll be plenty hard for any knife-related use.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
By hardness I mean "the hardness of diamond as opposed to silicon carbide/aluminum oxide
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Oh, I see. I thought you had meant the hardness of the diamond itself, as I understand it there are different hardness levels for synthetic diamonds. But I guess that wouldn’t really make any difference when using it on steel, duh. lol. Thank’s a bunch for the advice. It’s much appreciated!
 
No, I've not had any use for it in that format. I bought mine for lapping and resurfacing sintered silicon carbide or aluminum oxide sharpening stones.
 
Sorry to bug ya again, FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades . I was hoping to ask you one more question. The lapidary powder is natural Diamond powder. Would you happen to know if that makes much of a difference for stropping?
 
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