02-20-2018, 03:40 AM
Certainly even coarser abrasives can be used. I personally like to stop at 80 microns. I do have 200 and 300 micron CBN particles, but they start looking like poppy seeds and tend to roll off the strop a bit easily.
The coarser the particles, the less of them you have in a suspension or emulsion. You have more particles but less of them so the total carat count remains the same.
At the other extreme from 80 microns, I have diamond particles in a spray formulation that are 0.005 microns or 3.2 million grit. These particles (5 nanometers each) are the width of a DNA strand. To give a size perspective. An 80 micron CBN emulsion has a few hundred particles in a 2 oz bottle whereas a 2 oz bottle of 5 nanometer particles has 60 TRILLION particles in a 2 oz bottle.
I like to use linen belts because of their durability however the linen is not as fine as nanocloth strops. I would estimate that limiting linen strops to 0.25 microns would be pushing the limits of a strop of linen.
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Ken
The coarser the particles, the less of them you have in a suspension or emulsion. You have more particles but less of them so the total carat count remains the same.
At the other extreme from 80 microns, I have diamond particles in a spray formulation that are 0.005 microns or 3.2 million grit. These particles (5 nanometers each) are the width of a DNA strand. To give a size perspective. An 80 micron CBN emulsion has a few hundred particles in a 2 oz bottle whereas a 2 oz bottle of 5 nanometer particles has 60 TRILLION particles in a 2 oz bottle.
I like to use linen belts because of their durability however the linen is not as fine as nanocloth strops. I would estimate that limiting linen strops to 0.25 microns would be pushing the limits of a strop of linen.
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Ken