Lenny

I contacted WE and was informed that they source their films from 3M. I contacted 3M and asked about lubrication and the response more or less use what you like.

Today I touched up the bevels on my Sebenza. When using the lapping films I applied a very, very small amount of a light weight oil to the film. I don’t have an exact amount but to put…[Read more]

You have a good point about the hydroplaning bit, the oil film width would be very important their. While my coarse grits (=>1 micron) cut fine this may be why my 0.1 micron lapping films seemed to cut unexpectedly slowly: the film thickness of the oil was greater than that the abrasives. Doing a quick google search I was able to find oils that…[Read more]

Yes, that has been my experience with the KME lapping film. The oil helps to keep the fine metal dust from filling the “pores” of the film. I also generally feel that some lubrication while working with abrasives is a good thing for the stone or hone, this is anecdotal though.

Yes the, deteriorating the glue is also one of my fears when adding an…[Read more]

Hi Marc. This is something I will try but will be something that will take some time in determining benefits or detriments. So far, I have only used my WE films dry.

I have a KME as well as a WE and I like using a very, very thin film of a light weight mineral oil on my KME films. The amount should be so small that whatever gets removed from the film in the course of sharpening will stick to the blade and only the blade. I would use a small dropper bottle and simply touch the nipple of the dropper to the film…[Read more]