Any safety tips when using a diamond stone?

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propstm

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Feb 26, 2015
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I picked up and have begun using a Dia-Sharp Double-Sided Coarse/Extra-Coarse Bench Stone. The stone sharpens great -- so much so that both times I've used it, I've ended up with bleeding fingers. Aside from the obvious changing the way I'm holding the knife, is there any safety gear or suggestions anyone has? My gut reaction to grab my leather gloves seems like overkill, but I'm open to suggestions.
 
My only advice: Keep the stones clean and a little pressure goes a long way.
 
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propstm said:
I picked up and have begun using a Dia-Sharp Double-Sided Coarse/Extra-Coarse Bench Stone. The stone sharpens great -- so much so that both times I've used it, I've ended up with bleeding fingers. Aside from the obvious changing the way I'm holding the knife, is there any safety gear or suggestions anyone has? My gut reaction to grab my leather gloves seems like overkill, but I'm open to suggestions.
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Just what you said... slightly alter how you hold the knife. If it's from the fingers on the blade, try curling your fingers a bit, that should get the pads off the stone. Also, you may be pushing down a bit too hard. (Someone once called this stone rash). :eek:
 
propstm said:
I picked up and have begun using a Dia-Sharp Double-Sided Coarse/Extra-Coarse Bench Stone. both times I've used it, I've ended up with bleeding fingers. Aside from the obvious changing the way I'm holding the knife, is there any safety gear or suggestions anyone has? My gut reaction to grab my leather gloves seems like overkill, but I'm open to suggestions.
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To paraphrase the great Murray Carter: By the time you've worn through your finger prints on a stone 2 or 3 times, you're well on your way to becoming proficient at sharpening.

It happens. You will definitely learn what not to do: Namely to keep your fingers off of the stone! I've done it several times, but it's been a while. "Pain is a good teacher." -- My high school shop teacher.

Brian.
 
Stay away from gloves ,it will just allow you to keep using bad technique ( no offense)

If you sharpen knives at low angles especially Japanese knives where you haft to apply pressure it is going to happen .

Slow down, easy on the pressure . There is no need to use much pressure . If my knives are just dull and not damaged I usually just use the weight of the knife . If I haft to reprofile I may use one fingers worth of pressure ,and I use water on my stones .

If you aren't dealing with chips or edge damage then weight of the knife is all that's needed to get the edge back . Actually on my EF and EEF I use less than the weight of the knife .
 
propstm said:
I picked up and have begun using a Dia-Sharp Double-Sided Coarse/Extra-Coarse Bench Stone. The stone sharpens great -- so much so that both times I've used it, I've ended up with bleeding fingers. Aside from the obvious changing the way I'm holding the knife, is there any safety gear or suggestions anyone has? My gut reaction to grab my leather gloves seems like overkill, but I'm open to suggestions.
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No need for that at all. Keeping the fingers on the blade above the areas being worked is OK. Just be sure your fingers stay BEHIND the apex while doing so. If your fingers are bleeding, either from the edge of the blade (I've cut myself occasionally like this, in momentarily losing control of my finger position on the blade) or from scrubbing on the stone, that's obviously too close to the apex, and you need to fine-tune your finger positioning and contact on the blade. With time and practice, you'll still be able to develop a feel for flush contact between blade & stone, but your fingertips don't actually need to touch the stone or the apex to feel when it's flush. It's more about feeling for the slick/smooth contact (indicates flush contact) or hard/rough/scraping contact (not flush; scraping the shoulders if too low, or the apex digging in if it's too high), as fed back to the fingers in the vibrations coming from the blade as it moves over the hone. This sense of vibratory feedback through the fingers is even something that can be developed with no fingertips actually on the blade at all, but fed to the fingers through the bolster or handle of the knife. This is how I usually sharpen anyway, with the side of the pad of my thumb atop the bolster or handle, perhaps overhanging the tang/ricasso of the blade. I've gotten to a point where that's all I need to feel what the angle is doing (too high, too low or flush), and I can make angle corrections on-the-fly as needed.

I personally don't like to use gloves when sharpening because, at it's best, sharpening is all about feel and feedback through the fingertips. Gloves only get in the way of that, for me anyway. I did buy a pair of cut-resistant gloves to test for this, but I haven't liked wearing them while sharpening, for the sake of the diminished feedback. I'm frequently taking them off to test the edge for 'three finger sticky' sharpness as well, and that gloves-on, gloves-off back & forth gets old pretty quick.


David
 
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propstm said:
I picked up and have begun using a Dia-Sharp Double-Sided Coarse/Extra-Coarse Bench Stone. The stone sharpens great -- so much so that both times I've used it, I've ended up with bleeding fingers. Aside from the obvious changing the way I'm holding the knife, is there any safety gear or suggestions anyone has? My gut reaction to grab my leather gloves seems like overkill, but I'm open to suggestions.
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Yikes, hopefully cutting yourself improves your awareness.
 
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