Word, I was originally going to do that but as I was shopping around comparing prices per carat and per gram, I found the 10 gram syringes to be the best deal. I did have the thought in retrospect though... is it 10 grams of actual diamond or just 10 grams of paste. I kind of want to squirt one out just to weigh the paste. Edit: Damn, I called and they do state the weight of the paste, not the actual diamond... I might end up returning this paste and saving for the bort.
Also, I read about a variety of diamond called polycrystalline. I could only find it for sale in 1 compound though and it was really expensive per carat, but it's supposed to be 3x faster than normal diamond.
I asked Daniel what he mixes his diamond powder into and if he worries that the oil is creating an artificial polish; he said:
"I use a light honing oil. After each step I use an ultrasonic cleaner to clean the bead in a mixture of water ammonia and dish soap. Even if the oil penetrates this will remove the oil. Danny"
Also, he uses redwood spools but started with pine and said pine is fine. The wooden hemispheres I found for sale are made from birch. Not sure how much different wood types may affect the results.
I found this site selling diamond powder cheaper than Kingsley North, in more sizes too.
techdiamondtools.com/product/polishing-diamond-powders-200000-to-400-grit-25-cts-50-cts-100-cts/To get 50 carats of all sixteen sizes would be $233, hmmm
... Would also be 16 stages of tumbling lol what am I getting myself into. Hopefully stages will only take a day? I'm guessing about an hour to charge up all the little wooden pieces, x16... I might be talking myself out of this.