It is my understanding Meguiar's M105 Ultra Cut Compound uses diminishing abrasives. I guarantee to you that baby cuts like crazy while coming out almost LSP ready, no hazing, no hologramming, nuthin. You can find some really nice posts on it on MOL.
I encourage that you get a sample and give it a try even though it, in your logic and words above, defies physics. I have a strong feeling you will like it a lot even though it uses diminishing abrasives you seem to dislike.
I guess you missed the whole post? I am a
fan of diminishing abrasives, which is one of the reasons I have disagreed with the System One premise. I'm not sure why you think I believe diminishing abrasives are a bad thing?
Though I haven't tried 105 (yet) I have read great things about it and plan to try it very soon! But here is the dimelma, for Meguiars' to develope an abrasive that starts off aggresive (12 out of 12) and finishes down very fine, a lot of engineering has to be worked into the product. This is a direct contradiction to what I was told by System One regarding diminishing abrasives.
First the abrasive has to have significant cut (usually a combination of size, hardness, and sharpness). While most abrasives break completely down, there is a point in the degredation of the medium that it breaks down quicker, and looses cut faster then the grit needed to remove the scratches it just instilled. For Meguiars' to develope the abrasive to continue to polish its own marring out, special attention is paid to the rate at which the abrasive breaks apart (structure and hardness) as well as the sharpness of the meduim as it "fractures". So the hardness has to be bumped (to help the abrasive retain cut long enough to polish itself out) which then skews the orginal combination.
Also, the lubrication use has to stay wet (and slick) to promote a long enough buff time to fully break the polish down. It cannot be "too slick" which would prevent the abrasives from having enough friction to break them down at the correct rate. Also the lubricant and delivery has to resit the abrasives from "dusting out" before they are fully broken down. Once everything looks good on paper, even the smallest changes in forumla (abrasive or lubricant) has an effect on the rest of the engineered system; which is then re-engineered.
And this isn't even going into the uncontrolable factors such as paint type, hardness, pad, speed, tempature, and humidity. Developing any type of diminishing abrasive system that works well is a lot of "engineering" even though we where told at the expo that diminishing abrasives are old technology, harmful to the paint, and not engineered.
So taking this a step further, some day the ideal diminshing abrasive and lubricant system will be developed, and by using a softer pad, we will be able to cutt, polish, and burinsh to perfection in one quick step. This is only allowable by using diminishing abrasives that are highly engineered, and not possible with soft finishing polishes that use non diminishing abrasives. Of course, once these products are used in the real world, in different settings, with different variables, all that engineering is now skewed.
Look at SIP,which is designed as a moderate cut to finishing polish for Mercedes Benz. In the "cold enviroment" in which it is developed for, it is able to take MB paint to perfection in one simple step. However, in the real world, with other factors involved, SIP becomes more limited. Sometimes its grabby, sometimes it leaves hazing or holograms (other times it finishes out perfectly), etc... Yet it is still (and rightfully) regarded as one of the best, most versitile medium cut polishes on the market.
It seems like Meguiars' (with out trying it) has hit a home run, though I will be skeptical until I try it. Still, it is very promising.
fftopic: comment of the day.