Making paste?
- Thread starter aephilli
- Start date
Never done it with diamond, but I mix the green chrox stick with a couple drops of mineral oil and it works great.
- Thread starter
- #3
Check Lapidary sites - they usually sell a liquid called an 'extender' that will keep the diamond in suspension better than water or oils.
It tends to clump easily - and it's hard to unclump. Oil will work better than plain water.
Ionized water (I think) is what HA uses to mix their stuff - cuts down on clumpnig.
It tends to clump easily - and it's hard to unclump. Oil will work better than plain water.
Ionized water (I think) is what HA uses to mix their stuff - cuts down on clumpnig.
I don't know if it works with diamond dust, but I bought crox in a powder form and I just dip the bristles of a small paint brush in the dry powder and cover the balsa with it. Works like a charm and the abrasive is very evenly distributed.
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- #6
What I've done is to put a tiny (match head size) bit of the powder in a bowl then add 3-4 drops of glycerin and when that seemed "too thick" add one drop of water. That made a very thin "wash" or "paint" too thin to be called a paste, but easy to finger paint onto the balsa. No clumping issues. After a day of drying, using it revealed a LOT of draw. If I didn't know better (I had tried it without anything on the balsa) I'd think some of the spray adhesive got on the stropping surface. But the .25 diamond polishes the edge very nicely. After several blades on it (maybe 150-200 strokes in total) it showed some black deposits from the metal being removed.
One problem I had with spraying diamond on balsa was that the water raised the grain and made the surface quite rough.
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- #8
After I sanded the 'raised grain' the first time, the surface remained smooth with the second application of spray.
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- #10
Maybe on the next one I'll try the stockmaker's trick of "raising the grain" with a little water and then sand it smooth before adding the "finish".
