Thanks for all the nice info Mark76. Something comes to mind as well. The Dry stones seem to chip pieces off the edge, whereas the waterstones seem to give a much smoother finish. This could be because it is using water as a lubricant and thus there is slightly less friction on the metal surface. Perhaps the liquid in the diamond pastes and others is not water and could be more oil based to help form the suspension. Maybe a slightly higher viscosity liquid to help keep the particles in suspension.
Not sure if the more experienced guys have used oil instead of water. Car engine oil comes to mind as that comes under alot of heat and friction. Not sure what that would do to the stones but on the wood and leather strops should be ok. Also Ceramics is used in some modified car engines so I think that could also be ok.
I would stick to the leather and some oil and see how that works. Maybe edible oil would be better for the kitchen knives and engine oil for the EDC/working knives. One can always wash the knives after the Oil strop with dishwashing soap.
There are various ways of putting abrasive particles in a liquid or paste preparation. Personally I use three methods.
For tiny particles, the particles ‘float around’ and sink very slowly so a simple preparation is adequate and IMO preferred. I find, as a practical matter that particles below 4 microns ( about 4000 grit stay suspended quite nicely with just a quick shake after settling, so my CBN and diamond products are simply put in deionized water. Why deionized? Well if there are charged particles or ions in the water the electrostatic forces on small particles will cause them to clump or agglomorate, effectively acting like larger coarser particles and you get scratches from these large particles.
For larger particles, I prefer to keep them suspended. Suspensions are a copmplex topic in their own right. Roughly there are aqueous (water soluble) suspensions and oil or lipid based suspensions. A good suspension won’t separate into it’s subcomponents and a bad one will. I have observed bottles of my coarser CBN suspensions, with particle sizes as large as 80 miorons not settle at all for more than 6 months at a time sitting on a shelf.
In some instances you might want an oil type suspension. These should be kept away from waterstone, specifically synthetic Japanese stones and only in the rarest of instances on a select few natural stones should they be used. I tend to avoid their use in many instances BUT they are superb to use on leather sharpening belts and other motorized sharpening applications.e For use on strops they are also fine, BUT one should avoid cross contamonating stones with a blad that has some residual paste on it. I have the CBN available in a paste formulation going from as fine as tenth micron to as coarse as 180 microns (about 80 grit). The paste is optimized to spread easily, conditions the leather and sticks well to leather. I prefer to dab a bit on and spread it with either a disposable glove and or a butter knife (one you haven’t sharpened 🙂 You know who you are ). Pastes can range in viscosity from a thin oil to a thick waxy stick. I’ve had multiple levels of viscosity that I tested until I came up with what I liked to get something that gives me a pretty uniform spread without applying a hugh amount of it.
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Ken
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