I was just looking over some old posts I found by using the site's search feature to focus on the word "Abralon."  

I have not yet seen this product personally, so I'd be interested to hear any new commentary from folks who have used it.  Here's a link to a site that I found in my search through old posts:

http://www.woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=928-165

I'm mostly interested to know what people think of this product's effectiveness and--given the fairly high price--it's usable life.  Is it available at places like Home Depot and Lowe's?  If so, is it cheaper at those places or on-line?

My interest was kindled by my purchase yesterday of a Hammer Sharp Blade, which the literature says has a surface texture achieved by 1000 grit Abralon.  It's a very interesting look.  It must have been done using a Haus machine or something similar, because the texture of the surface is not concentric like you get from a spinner, but it is not perfectly random either.  It has a kind of patterning to it.  The texture has a unique look to it that I can't really describe.

I'd like to try some of these Abralon pads, but I'd like to hear a little more feedback first.  Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but what would really be nice would be a sample pack that contains one each of several of the grits.  Speaking of grits, in the old posts I found there was some confusion about which of the various industry scales for measuring grit was being used in reference to Abralon pads.  In the link above, it seems fairly clear that they are using the grit scale that most of us are the most familiar with.

Any information at all on the subject of Abralon would be cool.  

Shiv
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He says he can shout, don't hear you.

Yes, I saw all of that.  It got pretty involved, I must say.  I'm just looking for anything new anyone might have to say about this stuff.

Shiv
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He says he can shout, don't hear you.