Anyone using the Sharpmaker diamond rods?

R

rifon2

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Oct 9, 2005
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I'm thinking of getting a pair of diamond rods for my Sharpmaker.

Anyone tried them? Any thoughts?

Thanks.
 
I use them.They're pretty coarse & will take off more edge than the ceramic ones.They work very well on the super hard steels like ZDP189,S110V..etc.
The other day I brought down the angle from 20 degrees to 15 degrees on my BM635,no problem.It only took me about 15-20min.
They are definitely worth the 40 or so bucks IMO.
 
I just recently got a pair as well and I couldn't be more pleased. They work reasonably fast and leave a pretty decent finish.
 
I have a pair of these diamond rods. They are excellent for sharpening dull edges, when using the ceramic rods would take forever. However, to reprofile an edge, I use a DMT aligner guide with a coarse diamond stone - it's just more accurate that way, at least for my very unsteady hand.
 
I don't have them, but I have been told by very reliable sources they work great on the harder steels. I was also told that if I get a set, use very little pressure. One friend has said he's pretty much stripped the surface off the rods.

EDIT: For about the same price, you can get a Harbor Freight 1X30 belt sander, sans belts.
 
One step up instead of 204 ceramic brown rods in coarseness is the duckfoot sharpener at approx 30 bucks available. I got one and for maintaining an abused edge it will work.
About 600 diamondmesh so approx same as DMT fine. It feels like it is somewhat between a DMT coarse and fine.

The plus is the shape of the tool comes in handy for odd shaped blades like recurves / hawkbills next to more traditional edgetypes.

You could also lean the dmt coarse and x coarse dmt's against the flatsides in 204 setup. That is the thinner continuous versions ones instead of the older polk dotted thicker ones.

For the price of these 204 diamond rods i'd probably opt for a set of XXC C DMT ones.
 
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If your knife has curves and doesn't match up with the preset angles on your Sharpmaker, the 204D hones are awesome. When they're new and have a superfluous layer of diamonds on top of the ones embedded in the nickel, they'll cut steel stupid fast and leave a ragged edge (which is why you have the other Sharpmaker hones already), but after those salad days are gone, it'll still cut fast (just nowhere near as fast as it did), but leave a much better edge.

At least that's my experience.
 
Hou2008 said:
However, to reprofile an edge, I use a DMT aligner guide with a coarse diamond stone - it's just more accurate that way, at least for my very unsteady hand.
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That's what I'm going to do. I've used my DMT Aligner clamp with a DMT Fine stone (red). It gave me an excellent edge, but it took 6 hours or more to reprofile VG-10 from ~45˚ to ~32˚. I'm going to get a DMT XC (black) stone for reprofiling.

Maarten said:
For the price of these 204 diamond rods i'd probably opt for a set of XXC C DMT ones.
Click to expand...

XXC is only available as an 8x3 stone, right? Those are around $90, I think, and I don't know where to find them online.
 
Made the mistake of buying them a year ago... later sold them. a belt sander has the same price tag as the time needed doesn't even compare.
 
THG said:
That's what I'm going to do. I've used my DMT Aligner clamp with a DMT Fine stone (red). It gave me an excellent edge, but it took 6 hours or more to reprofile VG-10 from ~45˚ to ~32˚. I'm going to get a DMT XC (black) stone for reprofiling.



XXC is only available as an 8x3 stone, right? Those are around $90, I think, and I don't know where to find them online.
Click to expand...


I have no experience with this shop but they have a 11" diasharp at XC (220 mesh);

http://allprotools.com/DMT-D11X-11....rpening-Bench-Stone-Extra-Coarse-p-16732.html

;)
 
Anyone using the EZE Sharpner made in Australia. I read some info that compares it to the Edge Pro.
 
I have used the Sharpmaker diamond rods, they work well but I get similar results using my double-sided XC/F DMT diasharp leaning against the ceramic stones and it's a little more versatile with additional "fine" grit side. If you have knives with recurve blades the diamonds rods might be better for that than the flat DMT stone though.
 
I've heard a lot of folks have success simply wrapping sandpaper around the regular rods. ;)
 
have a pair of diamond rods as well... they work very well. Although they are bit rough at first so use them on a couple of beater/kitchen knives to break them in.....:D
 
I got a pair recently and I feel they are a necessity for the Sharpmaker.

I will (virtually) guarantee that anyone not having success with the Sharpmaker is not actually hitting the edge with the brown rods. The Sharpie trick to see the edge usually confirms this. I also find a cheap 10X loupe is very helpful while sharpening.

It has been said before, but the key is getting a burr along the whole length of the blade. Once you work a burr, you're going to be sharp. And if you aren't hitting the edge and getting a burr with the brown rods, it will take hundreds if not thousands of swipes to get one. That's where the diamond comes in. Quickly get your bevel reestablished and then move to the brown and white. With the loupe, you can see the scratch pattern changing with each change.

I also feel that one can get too caught up in multiple bevel angles. 30 and 40 degrees inclusive will work for most everything. Smaller than 30 and you can shave, but for real world, you'll be resharpening all the time.

Finally, since it packs up easily and sets up easily, the Sharpmaker is something you can actually keep out and use. No going to the shop for a grinder or getting out stones and oil. I leave mine set up with brown stones at 40 degree and can easily give a few swipes before cooking.
 
I use the diamond rods when ever I need to repair a seriously dull old edge or re-profile a new one. I had the old slip-over diamond covers given to me by Steve Bottorf many years ago and I learned the hard way that one shouldn't use too much pressure with them. When the newer triangle rods came out I grabbed a set of those and have been happy as a clam! Light, gentle pressure and keep the blade vertical!

SharpMaker works very well but because it is so easy, it is also easy to mis-use. I saw several YouTube videos of people using them, but NOT keeping the blade absolutely vertical! This is crucial to getting the proper edge and is usually flubbed by people trying to go to quickly because it's so easy to do!

Stitchawl
 
i have a set of the diamond rods and they do work pretty good, wrapping some emory cloth (or sandpaper) around the std rod works about as well though and is quite a bit cheaper.

if i had it to do over again i would pass on the diamond rods myself,
 
In addition to the topic discussion about diamond rods, what about the ultra fine ceramics? Anyone find those particularly useful?
 
Good question about the UF's. I have em. They're cool for hobby sharpeners, but not needed on a practical basis.
 
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