DMT Dia-Sharp EE

Gotsouthern

Gotsouthern

Joined
Sep 25, 2009
Messages
231
I want to preface this by saying I received this stone as a gift from a fellow forumite, who asked to remain nameless, last winter. His only other request was for me to write a review on it for the benefit of all. Let it never be said this site doesn't have some truly stand up folks on it.

I waited these many long months to write this up for the simple fact I don't sharpen on a professional basis, and I wanted to compile a reasonable amount of experience with the tool and on a wide variety of steels before making any sweeping statements. Those include everything from cheap Asian stuff (I know I know), to various grades of carbon steel, ATS34, 154CM, VG-1, VG-10, S30V, and even some ZDP (and btw it should be REQUIRED to buy this stone with any ZDP knife, they go together like peas and carrots, seriously, its almost uncanny).

That being said, I know knifenut has extolled the virtues of this piece of equipment for a very long time, and I will scarcely scratch the surface of the depth of what he's said prior. But for everyones benefit I wanted to reinforce those reviews and comments from my own, layman's non-professional perspective.

Bottom line guys, this thing rocks. No two ways about it. It leaves a nice, crisp edge with the very faintest hint of bite. Any angle < approx. 35 deg inclusive will be tree-topping sharp assuming I did my part. Mine is still too new to leave that beautiful polished edge knifenuts does, but the slightly hazy polish it does leave is just fine by me for the time (and btw knifenut, if you want a basically new EE I'll swap ya any time for your old, essentially worn out one ;) , I know I know, I'm just a nice guy like that). But seriously, for me its gotten to the point I don't even bother with any of my bevy of HA stropping goodies anymore. No need, and to be honest, the edges aren't as sharp after stropping as they are fresh off the EE. Obviously that last statement will be very subjective man to man, but for my cutting uses to my touch, it stands as the gospel truth. As far as I'm concerned, till something better falls in my lap, this is the final word in finishing stones. An enthusiastic :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Good Review! :thumbup:

I just got my EEF last week, so it really isn't doing anything for me. If it weren'd for the posts here that talk about the long break in time on it, I would probably be tempted to get rid of it. It doesn't really seem to improve on my EF finish at the moment. After reading (and in many cases re-reading) knifenut's posts, I've gotten to the point that I'm finishing the work on each stone with less than blade weight pressure, so that when I switch to the next finer stone in progression, the scratch pattern is as fine as possible.

The EEF, from the EF, seems to have little noticable effect so far. The time that I notice the EEF is when I go back up in grit after stropping or using my spyderco UF and finding scratches I didn't get the first time. Then I'll go back to the EEF, and get a nice haze again. I'm not giving up, I'll keep at it until I get the bugs worked out.

Besides, I'm still getting stupidly sharp edges, just not the mirrors I can get with my edgepro.
 
M4,

It took a good long time for me to get past the not-mirrored finish part, cause I REALLY friggin' like that look lol. But as we both agree, you can't argue with the stupidy of the sharpness the plate produces. And now that you mention it (and I should've though to put this in the initial post), batting back and forth a few times between EF, EEF and 1 micron diamond-on-wool felt strop, ending with a few final ultra-low-pressure passes on the EE seems to be the magic spot. Its taken me a solid year of playing with these Dia-Sharps to come to grips with just how little pressure they really require, esp the EF and EEF. Still not "read the newspaper in the reflection" polished by any stretch, but for an edge that, in a quiet room, AUDIBLY tree tops (something I cannot accomplish with any other method), I can handle a little haze :D
 
I hear that! I'm still playing, because, like I said, I just got them, but the edge that I just put on my new TI/SG2 JYDII is freaking SCARY. I'm going to be "knife-geeking" this weekend to continue to push the limits.

And I don't plan to forego my mirror edges. My UF Spyderco stone, used after the EEF, puts a fair mirror on the JYD, and I still have my CrO2-loaded strop. I'm holding off on springing for the diamond pastes/sprays until I get back into practice with frehanding, but I will break down sooner or later and make up a set of strops with diamond spray, and I still plan to get some Hand American horsehide and spend a couple hours making a finishing strop (I think stitchawl posted the article about "boning" strop leather)

The quest to sharpend a knife to the point of cutting the very fabric of spacetime continues... :D
 
Now you understand the true meaning of light pressure ;)

I've wanted to say it for a long time but felt no one would believe but you said it yourself. This stone yields a edge that IMO easily rivals a fine polished mirror edge in sharpness and performance. The sharpness makes you do a double take because it simply doesn't seem right to be so sharp.

The finish gets near mirror over time but the diamond plates always leave their mark. You either love it or hate it, me like it though :)

I have found one down side to diamond plates though. Some carbon steels don't seem to respond the best and don't get as sharp as they should. Metal removal also seems slower than comparable grits of sandpaper or aluminum oxide stones. Not sure why this is but the later methods always yield a better result on such steels. (Not including PM steels)
 
maw said:
My understanding is that it is the DMT D8EE Dia-Sharp Extra-Extra Fine (3 micron / 8000 mesh) Bench Stone. :)
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Thanks, I googled DMT Dia-Sharp EE and came up with xx-coarse and xx-fine. :)
 
What's a thread without a little edge porn :D

CPM-125v and the EEF
Picture1480.jpg


My avatar, ZDP and the EEF
PIC098.jpg
 
The 125v was done with a aligner and diasharps, the ZDP was done by hand.
 
I don't pay attention to angles, I just sharpen :)
 
knifenut1013 said:
I've wanted to say it for a long time but felt no one would believe but you said it yourself. This stone yields a edge that IMO easily rivals a fine polished mirror edge in sharpness and performance. The sharpness makes you do a double take because it simply doesn't seem right to be so sharp.
Click to expand...

Well I never in a 1000 yrs thought I'd say what I said above, and I guess the reason I held out on this review as long as I did was to convince myself of the efficacy of that very statement, but in all honesty I truly feel like stropping after this stone is going backwards. And that's not for lack of trying different steels and different strops...Ive got 'em from 1 mic diamond spray on wool down to pure clean pressed horse hide and everything in between. Now, on some steels and with some knives that may not be the case, but on most everything I've tried it on, its just the way it is. The uber-light pressure thing is key to the game though, to be sure. And also I've been using a little Dawn dish detergent for a lubricant, seems to help float away the slurry.

Anyhow, I couldn't have said it any better myself. When all the stars come in line and you hit just the right lick on this EE, it will defy the imagination and very well define synergy...or the end result is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
 
cziv said:
You guys aren't supposed to eat the "whole sheet" of blotter acid. :D :p
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Nahh we just took the red pill to see where the rabbit hole went. Get out now while all this still sounds trippy to you. At least you can't say we didn't warn you :D
 
Gotsouthern said:
Nahh we just took the red pill to see where the rabbit hole went. Get out now while all this still sounds trippy to you. At least you can't say we didn't warn you :D
Click to expand...

Too late, I already took the red pill - this and a couple of other threads on sharpening have been outstanding. Great ideas, techniques and exchange of ideas, with no trolling - except my post which I fully intended as FUN. :thumbup:
 
I have a quasi-necro worthy question here. To preface...I own an Edge Pro with all the stones & polish tapes & the DMT Aligner with all the stones up to the 8000. I just got the EP this year but have had the DMT kit for over a decade & have developed a good bit of skill with it.

Last month I was swearing my way through trying to keep a BM Barrage flat on the EP table when I decided to just give up & grabbed the Aligner & banged it out. Some knife profiles are just easier for me with the clamp but I miss those polished bevels (mostly when sharpening for others).

So...what if I was to buy myself a new DMT 1200 & use my old one for a blank for my polish tapes? Anyone tried this?

I microbevel on the last erotically light passes on the 8000 by giving the clamp knob a 1/4 turn first. Then I strop lightly on my jeans & pull it lightly through the rubber ring on my stone leveling kit. I assume I'm removing the burr at some point here. All this would come before the feather strokes on the polish tapes. Would I be gaining much here?
 
I also recently acquired the UF stone by spyderco. but i'm still on the fence if i should get the matchin F and M stones or rather the corse and EF by dia sharp.

reason being is that i heard lots of bad things about the dias.

the diamonds are badly spread (not all the way to the edge of the plate), i read.
and the diamonds break out easily. also i read that it rusts rather quickly.

any thoughts?
 
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