Which diamond paste or spray for my leather strop?

S

SkinnyElectrician

Joined
Oct 29, 2023
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I’d like to buy diamond paste or spray for my new leather strop. What micron size should I use, and should I use paste or spray? Your recommendations are appreciated.

I sharpen with a KME diamond system, and the very fine stone is 1500 grit.
 
I've got some 2.5 micron Burrfection paste and it's a pain to apply and it makes stropping "sticky". It has a lot of drag. Used on leather.
I've got some 1 micron emulsion that is ok. Used on leather.
I've got some .5 micron DMT spray. It sprays all over the place. Used on leather.
My stropping results with these products are ok, nothing spectacular. Might be time to make a change.....

I'm switching Gunny Juice 3, 1 and .25 micron emusion on Basswood with 3M micropore tape. Gonna see how that works. Might try some Jende nanocloth strops if the basswood doesn't perform. Scott Gunn, the gunny juice creator is very knowledgeable about all aspects of sharpening expecially stropping. Thought I'd give his products a try. Checkout some of his videos on the tube as they are worth a watch.
 
I use dmt 3 micron paste, it also is sticky with lots of drag. Will get my edge "brought back" from further than finer sizes will. Then I use .5 micron dmt spray. Smooth and easy to slide knife across, it puts the final easy shaving/pushcutting edge on. I use both on balsawood paddles I made. Just what I bought when I got started, before I knew about options from folks on here. I'm sure there's better options out there than dmt, but it does work. Even on 15v. But I also load my strops up pretty darn good, gotta make sure there's enough diamonds and I overdue most things I do.
 
I would follow a 1500 grit stone with about a 5 micron strop.

My favorite strops these days are Jende Nanocloth charged with their diamond sprays. The sprays last quite a while, and I think they are no more pricey than some of the pastes. The Nanocloth strops are firm, flat, and they do a beautiful, even job. I've used the sprays on flattened balsa wood, and the performance is excellent as well.
 
Khromo said:
The Nanocloth strops are firm, flat, and they do a beautiful, even job.
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How do you clean them when they get clogged?
I never tried them but I saw some mixed reviews. I made a jeans strop a while ago; it worked but after some use it was simpler to just make a new one.
 
Quick report back on the Gunny Juice
tacos3 said:
I've got some 2.5 micron Burrfection paste and it's a pain to apply and it makes stropping "sticky". It has a lot of drag. Used on leather.
I've got some 1 micron emulsion that is ok. Used on leather.
I've got some .5 micron DMT spray. It sprays all over the place. Used on leather.
My stropping results with these products are ok, nothing spectacular. Might be time to make a change.....

I'm switching Gunny Juice 3, 1 and .25 micron emusion on Basswood with 3M micropore tape. Gonna see how that works. Might try some Jende nanocloth strops if the basswood doesn't perform. Scott Gunn, the gunny juice creator is very knowledgeable about all aspects of sharpening expecially stropping. Thought I'd give his products a try. Checkout some of his videos on the tube as they are worth a watch.
Click to expand...
Quick report back on the Gunny Juice and Basswood with 3M micropore tape. I've been getting a much better edge, with improvements of 30-40 on my Bess tester. The polish on the edges is far better than I got using leather strops and various compound and pastes/Emulsions. And,yes, I use the super slow method on the Bess and don't just ram it home for those low scores. I had my Shiro F95 and PM2 testing at 135 before and at 100 after. This is a process that I will switch over to. The Gunny Juice isn't cheap but the Basswood and 3M tape is very cost effective. It's a winner in my view.
 
TheOne45 said:
If this helps; I just loaded my leather strop with Meusburger natural-grit 6 micron diamond compound.
Good stuff but expensive - 100 euros for 10 grams.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1baz1LMmkTueZgmpqCzSGT7Mcx4eimljk/view?usp=drivesdk
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That’s very interesting to me, since I’m in Germany for a few months. My family are all here.

Anyhow, I’ve been checking out Meusburger and been looking at their slurry. Have you tried their synthetic stuff as well? I’m just interested to find out if there is a noticeable difference between natural and synthetic. Well, at least what stropping is concerned.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making my own and was just wondering whether it makes any difference to use natural over synthetic.
 
huntyukon said:
Anyhow, I’ve been checking out Meusburger and been looking at their slurry. Have you tried their synthetic stuff as well? I’m just interested to find out if there is a noticeable difference between natural and synthetic. Well, at least what stropping is concerned.
Click to expand...

I've also used Congress 3 micron synthetic heavy compound and it worked fine on my strops.
I haven't tried synthetic compound from Meusburger yet.
I also have to try compounds from Joke Technology gmbh.
 
TheOne45 said:
also have to try compounds from Joke Technology gmbh
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I’ve checked them out as well. I was actually gonna give them a call today still. Looks very promising, for sure.

How did you like Congress compound?

I love how much variety there is of industrial diamond solutions in Germany. Compared to Canada, I mean.
 
huntyukon said:
How did you like Congress compound?
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I have no complains. It cuts the burr off the edge. This Meusburger compound I mentioned also works good but I haven't compare it directly to Congress compound.
The next time I'll have to load one of my strops I'll try one of those Joke compounds. I need to see, what's available in our toolshop.
By the way, for my kitchen knives I just use plain industrial metal polish compound.
 
I use Purol. Works good on simple steels.
I haven't tried it on my D2 knives yet.
I somehow doubt you can get it in Canada or Germany.
 
huntyukon said:
How far do you progress on stones until you use the polish?
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I only use diamond plates.
For kitchen knives just one diamond plate (#240 or #320) and then strop.
For my other knives I mostly use one plate or combination of #320, #600 and #1000. Depends on the knife, what kind of an edge do I want and in what mood I am at the moment.
But in most cases I do it simple, one or two plates and a strop.
 
TheOne45 said:
But in most cases I do it simple
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Yeah, I get it. I use CBN metal-resin stones and use #240 and #600 for most of my kitchen knives. I’ll give that polish a try when I’m back home in Canada. Thanks for all your tips. Much appreciated!
 
huntyukon said:
Thanks for all your tips. Much appreciated!
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You're welcome.
Just to add,
I use all those compounds because I have them on hand and for free. Otherwise I probably would not spend my money on natural diamond compounds just to deburr my knives.

Purol is somehow more aggressive as the green polishing paste. I like to use it because it's in kind of half liquid state when applying from the tube and then it dries out and does not give this oily feeling when stropping as the green compound does.
In your case I would not overthink too much and just use what's available in your area.
 
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