Massdrop- Diamond Stones

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I went on a little internet search. I think the answer is simply what @Barmoley says:



👆 The raison d'etre of CBN is being very hard (second to diamonds) and heat resistant. From what I read online, at high temperatures, there is carbon diffusion out of the diamonds which causes breakdown. That could be wrong. I didnt bother spending anytime verifying the technical reasons why break down occurs.

Suffice to say, the primary benefit of CBN has zero use on waterstones which are unlikely to have temperature fluctuations outside of ambient conditions. Perhaps there are small and interesting ways in which CBN could matter to whetstones like honing feedback. Since the market is pretty much 100% industrial, it is no surprise they wouldnt bother investing much R&D or tooling in a niche market.




I didnt find an answer to the cost question. Both CBN and synthetic diamonds need very high heat and pressure to be manufactured. My gut feeling is the price between them is probably not massive.

But here is something for abrasive nerds 🤓 (nerds about abrasives; not nerds with ****** attitudes 🤪)... not all synthetic diamonds are made equal! I didnt know this but there are a few subtypes. The two most interesting for us are monocrystalline and polycrystalline diamonds.

The main advantage going for monocrystalline diamonds (MCD) is cost. They are cheaper to manufacture. Because they are a single crystal, apparently there is an orientation to the structure where part of the surface is sharp and others are relatively blunt.

Polycrystalline diamonds (PCD) are clusters of micro-crystals forced into a bond together. Because they are composed of many micro-crystals, they can break-down into finer particles - effectively self-sharpening. Their compound nature also makes them a ball of sharp surfaces! I believe this gives them a higher cutting rate and potentially better finishes.

yeah you're probably right. its probably not worth the effort when diamonds are cheap.

i'm thinking/guessing boron carbide would be cheaper than diamonds though. but i have a feeling the actual cost of the abrasive material here is not a very big cost.

i dont know about any diffusion at high temps but diamonds is carbon just as charcoal. and carbon turns into carbonmonoxide at about 7-800 C or so. thats what i think the main reason is for cbn and bc, they are high temp stable.
 
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