Reply To: Am I bad or got a bad batch of diamond plates?
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@markh it’s nice to have a metallurgist here! I’m a physicist, but never study metallurgy. Maybe you could answer a question about strops? An acquaintance, who happens to be a mathematician, did an extensive study of strops, formulating about 50 combinations of various abrasives and greases on several substrates. He found that while finer grits gave good, polished results, they did so very slowly (no surprise). He found that a mixture of 600 silicon carbide grit and red rouge was a good balance between speed and polish. Now, his 600 grit is about 10 microns, so I wouldn’t expect a polish. He agreed and wondered whether, by being in the grease on a soft leather substrate, the particle size was effectively reduced.
So, my question to you is whether you think any of this makes sense? For example, do you think it is possible that the 600 grit SiC is really achieving a polish, or is this maybe the result of a subjective experiment that didn’t use microscopy to examine the surface? Remember, it’s a mixture of 600 grit and red rouge, so maybe the rouge is giving the mirror appearance and the 600 grit is leaving scratches that are hiding behind the polish of the rouge? Second, does it make sense to mix two grits of such different sizes?