for sam- or anybody

in sams' lettering video, he related that he used diamond spray on a piece of leather for mirror polish. those doing this : do you charge the leather each use, or can you polish more than one time on a charge ? i ask, as i'm thinking of giving this a try.

You can get several polishes out of it depending on how long or wide your leather piece is. On a leather piece glued to a piece of wood I spray it and let it dry before I use it. When I spray a ceramic stone or lap, I polish with it still wet. Diamond particles tend to roll around on a dry ceramic lap but on cast iron it actually embeds into the surface once you charge it.

thanks, tim. i have a perfect piece of leather earmarked for the task. gotta buy some spray.

Howdy, Monkster!

I use the same leather all the time, and give it a spray from time to time. What I have gone over to, is the diamond dust, charged on a cast iron lap with a little paraffin oil, that really is fast cutting, and I am guessing, it is doing a faster number on final lapping of bright gravers, before you want to give the final leather strop. Paul Hamler gave me a little box of his goodies at Vegas, that contained some diamond dust, and I have wiped some of that on my leather strop.

To work my diamond dust into the cast iron, I use a round 1/4 in carbide rod, held in a foredom handpiece and allow it to revolve, driven by the cast iron lap. It loads up many more cutting points than the sprayed diamond, and really acts fast for a bright graver finish.

Rod

hmmm yet another option. thank you for mentioning this.

Yep, I'm also using .5 micron diamond powered and I find that it works better than diamond spray, both on my cast iron lap and on a piece of leather.

ok- where does one get a box of this diamond powder ? and do you first mix it with any carrier liquid ? thanks to some kind responders, i've ordered 50 cts. of .5 micron powder. will 50 cts last for a week or a lifetime of use? i know, it depends upon level of usage, but just curious.