DMT DIA-SHARP break-in and grit progression

S

sqchram

Joined
Jun 22, 2012
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Have DMT EF and EEF.
Using a folding lockblade. Blade stamped 'CHINA' I think its an acronym for Carbide Hardened Indestructible Niobium Alloy.

Anyway, I'm just starting out and learning on these stones. I botched my technique on the EF and ground the tip at too much of an angle. Brought it back pretty close.

Question is the EF and EEF seem to really really cut fast and are quite gritty. How long before they start to break-in? Should I just keep working the cheapos until they smooth out a bit more and loose the big hard pieces that stick out and can be felt catching on the blade?

After some sharpening on the EEF, the edge wasn't perfect, but I thought I'd go to a strop to see how it would transition. I've got leather, balsa, and basswood. First put some white jewlers rouge on the balsa. It darkened, but I saw hardly any change in the edge surface. I put some 1 micron diamond paste on the basswood and hardly any darkening nor polishing of the edge.

Advice?
 
Not quite sure where you're at here. My DMT EF is quite smooth. I mean you can feel it bit on steel but to the touch, it's not exactly slick but it sure isn't gritty. I don't have an EEF. DMT is pretty much the apex at making diamond stones...I suppose there may be some oversize grit on there but that'd be surprising.

Now depending on your "cheapo" you may be getting fooled. Some of these Carbide Hardened Indestructible Niobium Alloy blades can be very soft. Some may have been heat treated poorly, some maybe not at all. In which case the diamonds are really going to cut like a hot knife through butter. Diamonds work well on good hard S30V and even on S90V...some untreated Carbide Hardened Indestructible Niobium Alloy carbon or stainless will be like plastic. Plus, these soft blades will not break in those stones very well although diamond stones don't need a lot of break in.

You might be better off with a cheap, but otherwise reputable, blades to practice on. Something like an Old Hickory product. They come all but edgeless these days but they are made of good 1095 steel and are well heat treated. They put a cursory edge on them because everybody likes different profiles and it save them a lot of money. Old Hickory are good knives. Sounds like you are a folder guy so maybe get a pairer or small boning knife to practice on. Hell, when done, you'll have a good quality USA made knife and it'll be sharp.

As to you technique, not sure where you're at their either. The Sharpie trick is the surest way to know what's going on. Paint the edge with a sharpie and make sure you see all the ink ground off along the edge. That way you'll know you're apexing the edge down to an actual edge.
 
Thanks for that. I'm not skilled enough to comfortably put my s30v paramilitary 2 to it yet as thats my top piece that I own right now that I want to ultimately refine the factory grind to hair whittling. As such i've had to saw through a metal zipper tooth while out with my friend to do an emergency repair after she pulled the zipper foot off as there were no stops. I could see a very very small roll but it held up well and the toothiness of the factory grind helped it to saw. It definitely didn't shave hair as well after but after a few pulls on my strops its shaving well again. I know i need to take it to the EEF or the EF to get the factory grinds out though.

I've got a couple other beaters including a vintage wood handled US Navy folder. (Handle stamped USN) which im sure has better steel.

Will experiment and learn more.
 
Ok my EEF is definitely not. It was definitely mislabeled. Others have commented on this from the amazon store but the packaging and block stamp shows its eef so it must be from dmt like that. Its more like a fine or coarse. I can easily tell by naked eye, magnification and most easily from feel. How frustrating!
 
sqchram said:
Ok my EEF is definitely not. It was definitely mislabeled. Others have commented on this from the amazon store but the packaging and block stamp shows its eef so it must be from dmt like that. Its more like a fine or coarse. I can easily tell by naked eye, magnification and most easily from feel. How frustrating!
Click to expand...

Yeah too bad.

However maybe it worth a second look because DMT sintered a thick coat diamond onto d3ee nickel plate to cover hills & valleys - these diasharp benchstone are ground flat ~25microns - those protruding diamonds will cut almost like d8e until it's break in. You should able to see actual the diff particle size for d8e and d8ee under 100+x magnification.
 
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Is it color coded? DMT color codes their grits. They color the handles or put a dot or color the bale on steels. Here is the chart.

color desc grit microns
black x-course 220 60
blue course 325 45
red fine 600 25
green x-fine 1200 9
white ceramic 2200 7
tan xx-fine 8000 3
 
If I recall the EEF had tan printing, I forget on the EF as I'm at work. Totally pisses me off, and when I get pissed off I go shopping so I ordered another EEF from a different retailer last night!

Father works at a plant with 100x-400x optical magnification as well as an SEM and STM!! I'm going to get to the bottom of this!
 
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