Diamonds coming off stones

I just put a razor sharp edge on a folder with my DMT diafolds x-fine & xx-fine. I've used them 100 times or more and they don't feel gritty but they sure put a great ede on. 8 strokes of the x-fine & and 8 of the xx-fine.

Shaves hair and goes through paper in long snooth sweeps. :thumbup:
 
gotcha.

I have used several diamond hones over the years, from varying brands. I do have a diafold that feels almost dead on the coarse side, and I have an EEF that seems to have some bare spots. Also wore out a serrated sharpener and have well worn a credit card sized one. An 8" coarse doesn't seem as aggressive as a 6" fine that is only a few months 'newer' but still well used. My XXC has held up well with some crazy pressure, though.

I like that the plates don't dish, but I don't know how wide the spread is on acceptable life on them. Especially if you flatten other stones or use them to grind/polish more than the cutting edge.
 
Maybe we can spread some 9, 6 and 3 micron DMT paste on them when they start to die. Call them DIA-STROPS. :D
 
Shing said:
I don't think diamonds will sink into steel, knife steels are too hard for even diamonds to embed themselves into it with hand pressure. You can make a diamond file by hammering diamond dust into a piece of steel but thats a lot more pressure.

What I think the company specialising in diamond tools should be saying is diamonds react with ferrous metals at high temperature to form iron carbide which is why diamond tools are not used to machine ferrous materials as they react rapidly at high temperatures and loose their effectiveness. Boron Nitride is used to machine ferrous materials instead of diamonds.

I have used a DMT stone for over 10 years and its still cutting although its pretty slow now.
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From what I have heard diamond is carbon and it will carbonize steel, that is upping the C content, but this is not happening with stones and hand power, very very far from it.

I also seriously doubt using a DMT stone will lead to more carbides in the steel.
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I know a girl who works at a company thats specialized in precision grinding steel, both soft and hard ones, and all they use is diamond, water cooled, but still. And they are very professional, they would not use that if there was a better alternative.

And the Edge-pro story sounds like BS to me, yeah thats right.
A tool only lasting 10 minutes, the truth is that "tools", the type of tools I think they are refering to, machine cutting "tools" (that has been taken out of context to make a point) are only calculated to last 15 minutes, so 2/3 of regular longetivety... not that bad considering how fast they work, Might be wrong though..

As a matter of fact Dormer have diamond coated drill bits as we speak, not sure if they are for steel or other materials.

"Diamonds gets stuck in steel and ripped out" yeah maybe they do, but that happens all the time with all materials on earth, its called diffusion, and its accelerated by heat I guess its due to the entropy of the universe at the most basic level. But at the pressures and temperatures involved in hand grinding/sharpening stuff this is a non issue, unless you want it to be.

What really happens with diamonds is this: in air, (which contains oxygen btw)

"Above 1,700 °C (1,973 K / 3,583 °F) in vacuum or oxygen-free atmosphere, diamond converts to graphite; in air, transformation starts at ~700 °C."

And I guess at 700°C it turns into Carbon+oxygen = CO2 = a gas = disappears = magic :)
 
I'm not so sure most of us here are qualified to give a definative answer on this topic just our experiences . That in mind . I own diamond stones of the four grits, X-coarse to X-fine . Though the doctors still out on how long they last and if they cut any faster than say a Norton crystollon while rebeveling . I do think they leave a superior edge on a blade as cutting tests bear this out and I agree with Bill De . The diamond grains/grits tend to break off or are pull out . Just take your stones onto your front porch in bright sunlight and start sharpening a knife using normal pressure . After a few strokes look closely at the blade edge not scraping on the stone and you'll notice several shiny grains . Under magnification those show to be diamonds whether broken off or pulled out I'll concede that issue but they are present in an area which the knife didn't touch the stone . DM
 
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Your problem is too much pressure, I've done it myself with diafolds and a XC plate. If your using as much pressure as you normally use with stones you are using too much. Once you learn proper use of pressure this will no longer happen.
 
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