Western Active Honey Badger
Diamond Polishing Paste – 4 steps to bring the edge back
We have written a number of articles about keep your Honey Badger Knives sharp, here we take a look at the use of Diamond Polishing Paste.
Stropping a knife edge removes very little metal but is still very useful to maintain a shaving sharp edge. The only proviso is that the edge is not badly damaged or completely blunt.
There are many great commercially available strops like these from Chris Williams which come preloaded with various compounds. There are however many folks who like to take bare strops (either basswood or leather) and then coat them with their own compounds. These compounds often come in the form of a solid bar which you then rub over the strop material. This leaves a fine layer of compound.
More recently diamond polishing paste is being used by those enthusiasts wanting to take their stropping to yet another level. These pastes come in various grit or micron sizes as can be seen in the table below care of Tech Diamond Tools whose compounds we used here.
Grit guide:
- 200,000 Grit, 0 to 0.1 Microns – The Finest Polish
- 100,000 Grit, 0 to 0,25 Microns – Final Polish
- 50,000 Grit, 0 to 0,5 Microns – Final Polish
- 14,000 Grit, 0 to 1 Microns – Final Polish
- 8,000 Grit, 0 to 2 Microns – Mirror Finish
- 5,000 Grit, 1.5 to 3 Microns – Mirror Finish
- 4,000 Grit, 2 to 4 Microns – Mirror Finish
- 3,000 Grit, 3 to 6 Microns – Fine Polish
- 2,000 Grit, 4 to 8 Microns – Fine Polish
- 1,500 Grit, 6 to 12 Microns – Pre Polish, Fine Lapping
- 1,200 Grit, 8 to 16 Microns – Lapping Metals
- 1,050 Grit, 12 to 20 Microns – Lapping Metals
- 800 Grit, 14 to 24 Microns – Stock Removal or Lapping Metals
- 600 Grit, 22 to 36 Microns – Stock Removal or Lapping Metals
- 500 Grit, 36 to 54 Microns – Medium Fast Lapping
- 400 Grit, 54 to 80 Microns – Medium Fast Lapping
They have a standard 3 pack of Diamond Polishing Paste consisting of 4000, 8000 and 50000 grit syringes. We requested to be sent a 2000 grit syringe too to see how good it was to sharpen a dull knife.
They key in applying the diamond polishing paste is to apply as little as necessary to cover the strop.
We found that making this squiggly pattern dispensed about the right amount of paste which was then spread using an old credit card.
As advised by the folks at Tech Diamond tools we applied both the the 2000 and 4000 grit diamond polishing paste to the rough side of the leather and the 8000 and 50000 grit pastes to the smooth sides. These pastes are mineral oil based so if there was a need to smooth things out a drop or two of mineral oil on the strop would help. We did not find this necessary.
The strops were then left overnight so that the paste on the four strops could properly dry.
We took a knife and dulled the edge by sliding it along a stone. At this point it would not cut paper at all. Ideally with the knife being so blunt one should not use a strop as the first step to bring the edge back. However we wanted to see if the 2000 grit strop would do just that.
It took quite a number of passes as you can see from the metal residue on the 2000 grit strop but it actually did bring the edge back to the extent that it would cut paper albeit a little rough.
We then progressed to the 4000, 8000 and 50000 strops and after each one the knife edge became shaving sharp and started slicing through paper very cleanly and easily.
With the knife already quite sharp after the 2000 grit strop much fewer passes were required while progressing through the remaining 3 strops. In reality the Diamond Polishing Paste 3 pack would have been adequate as one should never let a knife get as blunt as we made it at the beginning of this test.
There are many suppliers of these pastes with pricing varying wildly. The folks at Tech Diamond Tools pride themselves in the fact that their compounds are all made in the USA. Additionally the high concentration version of the 3 pack mentioned here has an excellent 50% concentration of diamond powder in them. They turned their passion into a business, that started and stays in the US. This enables them to maintain the very high quality and consistency of their diamond compounds.
We found that these high concentration pastes from Tech Diamond Tools worked very well and are very reasonably priced at $21.50 for the 3 pack.
What Honey Badger Knife are you going to buy next?
Only handled one and it was a great blade!
I had to leave a review. They are a knife company
Superb Craftsmanship and design, Excellent EDC Knife!
Honey badger has some great knives give them a follow on instagram too.
The large drop point is my jam!! How perfectly this knife is engineered and appointed is almost an enigma to me! How did they get it to be so good and so budget friendly?
Honey Badger Knives are top notch for quality.
I do not own a a Honey Badger knife at the moment but I’ve heard nothing but good about these guys! I’m a beginning knife enthusiast and I live for the more budget friendly and on the occasion one that is more expensive for my collection. I’m adding all knives from different brands and if I won a knife from Honey Badger then they will have a spot in my collection and hopefully grow with the other brands I have now. Here’s to winning giveaways 🤘
I live in south Africa and love the Honey Badger knifes, excellent product competitive with ANY top tier name brands, parts and warrantee available easily. I will NEVER buy another top tier knife from abroad!!
Great quality at a great price point, replacement parts and ways to customize your knife. What more could you ask for?
honey badger has really good high quality knifes. i was gifted one, and since then i have it in my pocket all the time. once i lost it, so i told my family that who ever finds it gets 20 ILS
I love honey badger knives design.
Very nice nkife
Best pocket knife I’ve owned. Have carried all the major brands for years. And great options in other brands, but what impressed with this brand is truly the quality of the blade, fit and finish. This is a gentleman’s/grown up’s knife though. Thin super sharp blade. If you use a knife as a screw driver and to jam into hard things, look elsewhere.
Just bought the honeybadger knife HB1017 flipper medium and I am well satisfied with it except for the lock bar. When you close the blade the release nub has a sharp edge that hits the end of your thumb. I filed the edge off without a problem but I feel this should be addressed by the designer.
Nice looking knife!
Great knives at a reasonable price
Honey Badger knives are obviously built from quality, reliably sound materials to withstand vast and rugged conditions while simultaneously flaunting a full array of blade/handle shapes and designs ranging from more tried and true classic looks to more unexpected, innovative and eye-catching, yet still finding itself repeatedly snug in that go-to, forget-anything-but-this-one, even-running-way-too-late, oh-no-H0£¥ §H%actually-all-those-knife spot
Excellent quality and value!
Great looking knife
Awesome knives
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