DMT Diasharp 2"x6" for Edge Pro?

O

Omega Leather Works

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Jun 13, 2007
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So I was looking around for stone options and ordered a SiC 120 grit stone. That should work well, but then I saw the DMT.

It's not made for the EP, but a website that sells it has a video of them using and selling it for use with the EP. I've found these continuous surface plates in several grits. They are two sided (coarse/fine, coarse/xcoarse etc...).

I'm wondering if anyone has used one of these, or if anyone has any thoughts on them. They're pretty wide, which can be great and not so great. They can also be used to flatten the regular stones which is pretty awesome.

What say you?
 
The Dia-Sharp plates are quite heavy too, if you haven't used one yet. Plate is 1/4" thick steel, underneath the nickel & diamond coating. I have the double-sided 6" x 2" Dia-Sharps in XC/C, F/EF. Don't have the EP, so I've just used mine as regular bench stones. The weight of these hones would concern me, if using them on a guided setup such as the EP. On small blades especially, the size and bulk of them might get awkward, and maintaining a feather-light touch is more difficult with a heavy hone (it's one of the reasons I like using my Lansky with it's small hones, on small blades).

Personally, I wouldn't use them for flattening other stones. I've flattened small ceramic hones before, using either Dia-Folds or the larger Duo-Sharp hone (both are interrupted surface hones), but you have to be careful not to scrub too much diamond from the substrate. The large, bench-sized Duo-Sharps in C/XC/XXC might work better for flattening other stones (surface area makes a big difference). The Duo-Sharps are also guaranteed/certified as 'dead-flat', within tight tolerance. The continuous-surface Dia-Sharps aren't guaranteed to be as flat.


David
 
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Yeah weight was one of my concerns. Let me ask it this way...

Since you are familiar with the weight of these plates, do you think the weight would exert more pressure on the surface (being used upside down, suspended) than you would recommend for a knife to be pressed against if used in a traditional sense?

I guess that that's really my main concern. I think I've used that kind of pressure on my other diamond hones without any issues, but I can't know for sure without holding the DMT
 
They definitely fit on my sharpener and while they are heavy, if you take a little care, I'm confident that it will work for you.

Being so wide, it'll work best on knives that have a straighter edge geometry. Larger kitchen knives ought to be fine, Anything with a curve or recurve won't work well, if at all.
 
Strigamort said:
Yeah weight was one of my concerns. Let me ask it this way...

Since you are familiar with the weight of these plates, do you think the weight would exert more pressure on the surface (being used upside down, suspended) than you would recommend for a knife to be pressed against if used in a traditional sense?

I guess that that's really my main concern. I think I've used that kind of pressure on my other diamond hones without any issues, but I can't know for sure without holding the DMT
Click to expand...

That's exactly what concerns me. In early grinding stages, when the objective is just to set a new bevel by hogging off metal, not such a big deal, and it might even work to advantage. But in the finishing stages, when feather-light pressure makes a difference, you really have to stay focused to keep the excess weight of the hone from damaging the fine edge, or unnecessarily creating larger burrs (excess pressure = big burrs). I'd noticed this even when using my Lansky sharpener with it's very small 4" x 1/2" hones, of about the same thickness as the DMT plates. And the weight is magnified if one momentarily loses full control of the hone and it falls against the edge (been there, done that). That last point is REALLY bad if it happens near the tip of the blade. A heavy hone could destroy the tip in a second.

A lot of this depends on if you think you'd be comfortable using them that way. Never hurts to experiment with different methods either; sometimes you'll be surprised. For me personally, I've really grown to prefer minimizing the pressure exerted during finishing stages, and the weight of these hones against the edge would be a distraction for me. And during a more lengthy sharpening session, I'd think that would fatigue my hands as well.


David
 
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Thanks for your answers guys. I'm going to hold off on the plate for now, but I may go back to it if the 120 stone doesn't perform as well as I hope.

At first I thought c/xc would be perfect then I settled on f/c and realized that weight may be an issue with the fine side and the size isn't optimal.

I wish EP made diamond hones that were in more grit sizes.
 
I've been using the XC DMT Diasharp on my EP Apex for a couple years now, for both sharpening and stone flattening. Works just fine, although as it was noted above, it IS rather heavy. More weight than I'd really want for later steps, I think, but for roughing it works just fine and strips off the metal like crazy. I've had no trouble at all with it flattening my stock EP stones, or Chosera aftermarkets. The Atoma 140s are another great option (better than the DMT in terms of performance), they are cut to the standard 1x6 and mounted on plates for the apex. Jende is a great supplier for those.
 
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