Diamond sharpmaker rods viable for reprofiling?

S

SBaker34

Joined
Jun 16, 2010
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I only have a few folder knives and a few fixed blade knives, I was considering a worksharp for my 9 inch bk9, but ive only used the BK9 a few times and it doesn't seem very efficient to refine the edge on a pocket knife with a belt sander. so I am considering just getting a sharpmaker and sending the BK out to be fixed by a pro. However my griptilian does appear to have a very obtuse angle on it, and I am curious how long it would take to reprofile it with diamond rods, would it even be reasonable for a complete newbie who cannot use freehand stones acceptably?

Eg would it take roughly 100 strokes, 500, 1000, even more? 10 minutes, 30 minutes, a whole day etc.
 
Owned the Sharpmaker with the extra diamond stones. The DMT aligner deluxe, add in a DMT black extra coarse, and it will run circles around the Sharpmaker. Sharpmaker is really good, but in my opinion it's just for maintaining an edge.

A Norton crystolon coarse/fine is all you really need for the BK9. Really good edge with a lot of bite. Home Depot has the Norton economy six inch bench stone for less than $6.00. It's not oil filled though like their premium stones. I would soak it in some kind of mineral oil or honing oil if it were mine. You could use the Aligner on the BK9 too but you would need to basically move the clamp twice per stone since it's so long. Sharpen like half of the blade on each side, and then move the clamp, and then sharpen the other half.
 
I don't even own a sharpmaker and I would only wish reprofiling a knife on on my enemies it sounds quite painful. I use my DMT Aligner to reprofile knives, I just got done with a carbon steel blade no more than 2min ago it took me around 30min as it was a bit thicker than most pocket knives I work with and I was taking my time. I used the Course stone for reprofiling and than just sharpened it up on the Fine and Extra Fine while I was there.

Most people complain about using the sharpmaker when they try to reprofile with it, the Aligner, lanskys, and a few others will do it just fine on the other hand. If your planning on reprofiling a lot I pick up a system that works good doing that, or get good at using benchstones. Big D1 already mentioned that if you use the Aligner on the larger knife you probably have to move it a few times to sharpen the whole blade, thats the big drawback with some of these guided systems but for pocket knives you won't run into that problem.

A griptilian as a very rough estimate having never dealt with a steel like what they are using, probably take me 40min. If it was a fresh course stone with how they are more abbrassive before they are broken in you can cut that time down, and same thing with an extra course stone. And that's a reprofile and sharpening, I take my time while sharpening it to make sure I get out any imperfections I can from quickly reprofiling it. Other people are probably a lot quicker, I listen to music, clean the stone more often than needed, and a bunch of other things while doing this.
 
I use the DMT aligner to reprofile and the sharpmaker for touch ups or a really refined edge. Like others have said the aligner with the extra coarse stone makes quick work of most knives, although it is not exactly precise with angle estimates. I find the lowest setting usually leaves my edges on most medium sized knives between 30* and 40* inclusive, which can then be touched up with the sharpmaker.
 
I recently set the bevel on my sebenza with the diamond rods to 30 inclusive. I had it done inside a bulls game start to finish, didn't count the strokes just kept at it until the edge was apexed. So, yes, it is a viable option IF you have the time and take your time to do it.
 
I've got the diamond rods, and like them a lot. But, like was said, throw in a black DMT, or I prefer the coarse DMT diasharp, and you are in business.
 
The diamond rods are much much faster than the medium rods that come with it, but you're going to have a hard time re-profiling much of anything with them anyway. If your angles are pretty much 30 or 40 anyway and you just want to get them dead on to match your strokes on the Sharpmaker you can do small folders in a reasonable amount of time, but if you're really changing the angle you'll have trouble with just about anything, and drive your self crazy with anything much larger than a PM2.

It says not to use pressure in the literature, and the grit wears down the very first time you try to use them on anything more than 2 minutes. It seems like they knock the shoulder off fairly well, but progress slows to a standstill after that (could be the diamond coating getting damaged or the geometry of the more exposed edge).
 
Should be the diamonds being broken in, that is normal to my understanding. It feels very aggressive at first than after awhile it smoothes out and just kind of stays that way, this is normal behavior.
 
All diamonds need conditioning. They will perform better afterwards. Also much smoother As well.
 
I do my reprofling on my Edge Pro and have done it on the Aligner as well. I dont have the diamond rods for my sharpmaker but I can only imagine how long it would take me. It sounds like its possible but I dont have that kind of patience.
 
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