Ceramic vs diamond stones?

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onionsninja

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Jan 30, 2021
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Hello everyone! I recently purchased a Fallkniven DC521 (not used yet). I watched some sharpening tutorial videos on YouTube that suggested that coarse ceramic stones are better at re-profiling than diamond. I have a 6" blade I took to a tree branch and it's badly chipped and rolled. Would a corase ceramic stone do the job? For those of us who own both, what's your experience, advantages, ease of use, cleanliness, safety? Is a diamond stone/rod redundant if I own a ceramic stone/rod?

Should I return the DC521 and get myself something like the Spyderco corase ceramic stone, or a DMT diamond/ceramic? Thanks!
 
I think the coarsest Spyderco benchstone would work, but it would be very slow going. If you want something to quickly take off dents and dings, I would suggest the Manticore stone from Baryonyx Knife Co.

On the other hand, maybe the stone you already have will work great; I don't have any experience with it, so I can't comment on that. Hopefully someone else will come along.
 
For reprofiling or fixing dings in the edge, a coarser stone will work faster. I think that the coarsest available stones are ceramic.

However, IMO, whether you want to use an alumina stone or a diamond stone depends a bit on the blade steel. For carbon steel and alloys containing chromium carbides, Alumina ceramic such as what Spyderco uses will do well. But, I've never seen a Spyderco stone coarser than a Medium, and the Medium stones are not really coarse enough for reprofiling. I've had good experiences using Norton India alumina stones. The coarse India is a 150 grit. Diamond, will work, of coarse, but it's pricey compared to an alumina stone.

If the alloy contains a lot of Vanadium carbide (most fancy PM steels), then I would recommend a diamond stone rather than an alumina stone. (Vanadium carbide is harder than alumina.) Boron Nitride would also work. Silicon Carbide might also work. I"ve had good luck reprofiling using a DMT extra coarse diamond stone. Though they should work, I've never tried either Boron Nitride or silicon carbide stones, so I can't recommend them from personal experience.
 
The coarsest Spyderco ceramic is a 'medium' rated stone and is nowhere near coarse enough for reprofiling jobs. It's a much better finishing stone for EDC edges in which a little bit of toothy bite is left, just a little bit short of a polished finish. That's really the sweet spot for that stone, in a sharpening regimen. If comparing that medium Spyderco stone to diamond, even an EF diamond (1200) would work faster for heavier grinding, and the EF diamond is still far short of a good reprofiling stone, in terms of working speed.

All that being said, for a dedicated reprofiling stone, something MUCH coarser is more suitable, such as diamond in Extra-Coarse (225 or so), or SiC or aluminum oxide at/below about the same grit rating (220-240 or lower). Think of the Coarse India from Norton (aluminum oxide) or a Coarse SiC stone, like Norton's Crystolon, for those non-diamond options.

As mentioned, if the steel you're grinding is heavy in vanadium carbides (4% vanadium content or more), then SiC or diamond would be better for those. Aluminum oxide would begin to struggle with such steels, and the stone would suffer for it too (glazing or heavy, premature wear).
 
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