Thread: diamond paste

just bought a travel strop with leather on both sides and diamond past. would .50 be good enough or should i use finer?

.50 is probably a good choice. It will give you more abrasiveness for the occasional touch up than .25 paste/spray. You may also want to paste a piece of balsa or something with either .25 diamond or CrOx.

I personally prefer CrOx on leather and diamond on some sort of fabric. The diamond is much harsher than the CrOx and being on a fabric tends to mellow it out a bit.

Go easy on the strokes as well! Its really easy to overcook an edge on these sprays, and especially on diamond IME. Start out with 5 strokes then strop and test shave, and only do more if you need to after that.

i also prefer paste on fabric or leather i'm not a fan of balsa.

Diamond paste is a type of polishing compound made from finely ground or powdered diamond particles, and some kind of liquid, usually water based. Diamond powder itself is simply diamond paste without the water or other liquid binding agent. It may come in a syringe for more exact application, or even come in a small pump-spray bottle. Some manufacturers of diamond paste produce pastes with different sized grits in specific colors. Color coding the diamond paste can facilitate selecting the proper size of grit for the surface that is to be polished.