How to use diamond suspension

miso2 · Dec 28, 2016

Hi all,

I just got some sample bottles of PSI diamond suspension. Can anybody tell me how to use them?
I wanted diamond pastes instead of suspensions, but they only offer suspensions for testing.
Can I just add some drops on a leather strop and dry?
Or should I use them on a glass plate?
Thanks!

Miso

Kyle363 · Dec 28, 2016

The ones I've had come in a little spray that I've sprayed on a leather strop and then waited about 5 minutes for it to dry.

bflying · Dec 28, 2016

I much prefer the liquid suspension's to the pastes. At least the ones I've tried. I use on leather (nice and smooth, flat, and dense leather - hard rolled, pressed leather, or hard kangaroo ). Drop or spray on, spread around, and let dry.

The pastes that I've tried seem to never dry out. Just always gooey and weird. Maybe I was using it wrong, but now that I've found something that works great, no need to go back now.

Sent from my mind....using Tap-a-Thought. (tm)

Rey HRH · Dec 29, 2016

I have a 500 ml bottle of suspended diamond poly(something). I bought a small spray bottle, more like a mister. I tried diluting it at first but I later decided it's not necessary. I have sprayed it on a cloth belt for the Worksharp and also on a basswood strop that I sanded smooth.

I shake it then spray it on and then with a latex gloved hand, I just make sure the globs even out so that when it dries, it's sort of even. On the cloth, I don't worry that the diamonds won't hold. With the basswood, the diamonds do seem to adhere after they dry out.

Looking at the Knives plus strop which does very well as a strop, I'm currently on the belief that saturation of the strop with the stropping medium is beneficial. So I've been loading up the cloth belt and the wood strop before I use it. Of course, I then have to wait for the stuff to dry before using it.

ToddS · Dec 29, 2016

If you rub the leather down with an alcohol-soaked wipe you can remove the oil that prevents the spray from wetting. You will also get better results if you sand the leather flat first.

You can also spray a piece of paper and wrap it around a stone to make it flat.

miso2 · Dec 29, 2016

Thank you, guys!
I bought a couple of mist sprays and will try to apply on leather.

Miso

Chris "Anagarika" · Dec 30, 2016

ToddS said:
If you rub the leather down with an alcohol-soaked wipe you can remove the oil that prevents the spray from wetting. You will also get better results if you sand the leather flat first.

You can also spray a piece of paper and wrap it around a stone to make it flat.

Or wrap the paper around washboard.
:thumbup:

FlaMtnBkr · Dec 31, 2016

Out of curiosity, how big are the bottles? Just wondering how much you have to work with to experiment with. And does it give any info like micron size, concentration (how many carats in how many ml or ounces), poly or mono crystalline?

The liquid I have is in a bottle with a sprayer and for leather it's not really needed. I spray a pump or 2 and then have to use my finger to spread it around to get complete and more even coverage. I keep spreading as the water is absorbed by the leather and it leaves behind a somewhat even whiteish residue which works great.

I can see shaking the bottle well and dripping a few drops on a leather strop and spreading it like above. You can probably do similar with other materials depending on how absorbent it is. I don't think I would want to use a very absorbent material because the abrasive will get pulled inside the material where it won't do any good. Unless it's worn down over time so the inside is exposed but I can't think of anything like that.

Just so you know in case it crosses your mind, diamond sprays use very pure deionized water. This has essentially no charged particles floating around because if it did it would cause the diamond particles to start to clump together. So if you put some in a spray bottle I personally wouldn't be tempted to dilute it at all. Even deionized water from the store is far from pure though.

Anyways, give it a shot and let is know how you like it! I really like the 1 micron stuff for touchups.

ToddS · Dec 31, 2016

FlaMtnBkr said:
...
I can see shaking the bottle well and dripping a few drops on a leather strop and spreading it like above. You can probably do similar with other materials depending on how absorbent it is. I don't think I would want to use a very absorbent material because the abrasive will get pulled inside the material where it won't do any good. Unless it's worn down over time so the inside is exposed but I can't think of anything like that.

....

Diamond/CBN spray works just fine on absorbent materials. Larger particles (> 1micron) will "go inside" but they don't do anything on a strop anyway.

miso2 · Dec 31, 2016

FlaMtnBkr,

I have three bottles of poly crystalline samples at 1, 0.25, and 0.1 microns, probably in the quantity of about 20 ml. They don't have any specification of the concentration, but the samples are fairly black. I do have an access to ultrapure water but don't feel that I need to dilute the suspension.

I will report how they work on high vanadium carbide steels later on.

Miso

FlaMtnBkr · Jan 2, 2017

ToddS said:
Diamond/CBN spray works just fine on absorbent materials. Larger particles (> 1micron) will "go inside" but they don't do anything on a strop anyway.

How are large 1+ micron particles not going to do anything on a strop?

Also, how are the particles that cut going to do anything if they are adsorbed inside a material where they can't touch the steel that is moving along the surface? Unless the material is breaking down and exposing the inner layers of material, those particles that are adsorbed into the material, like felt, are wasted as they are in a place where they can't touch the blade being stropped.

That was a short sentence and maybe I'm missing something so I would be curious to hear more.

ToddS · Jan 2, 2017

FlaMtnBkr said:
How are large 1+ micron particles not going to do anything on a strop?

Also, how are the particles that cut going to do anything if they are adsorbed inside a material where they can't touch the steel that is moving along the surface? Unless the material is breaking down and exposing the inner layers of material, those particles that are adsorbed into the material, like felt, are wasted as they are in a place where they can't touch the blade being stropped.

That was a short sentence and maybe I'm missing something so I would be curious to hear more.

https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/the-pasted-strop-part-4/

The larger the particle, the greater the pressure required for it to cut steel. On a soft, resilient substrate, large particles can't "push back" with sufficient force to cut. You can demonstrate this to yourself by the minimal swarf that builds up on a 10 or 15 micron particle loaded strop.

Although most of the smaller particles (1 micron and smaller) end up below the surface, only a very tiny fraction need to be at the surface for the strop to work. They also tend to move around and some will always find their way to the surface. In fact, the "surface" moves around as fibers re-orient themselves with use. Dampening the strop helps with this also. Again you can demonstrate this to yourself by testing a sprayed fabric or paper strop.

miso2 · Apr 30, 2017

I have tested diamond suspensions in some different ways and settled on a method below.

Basically, I deposited the suspension (1 micron poly) on a used Edge Pro polish tape (#2,000). I guess this is rather an unorthodox way, but it works.

This tape can polish S35VN and S110V quite nicely and quickly. The finish is definitely different from what I have gotten with just the tape. Below shows some polishing on S35VN right after the #320 stone.

Miso