- Joined
- Aug 4, 2001
- Messages
- 4,973
I know this is knife reviews, sorry if it's a bit off-topic but...
I've been lusting after the Duo-Sharp for a while and I just got mine in the mail today. I got the Fine/Coarse, since I have no use for Extra Coarse and as far as Extra Fine goes, I still wanted to finish on a black surgical arkansas stone. These are the grits most people recommended when I asked about it a while ago.
This thing is economical, because it comes out cheaper than buying two 8" DMT bench stones of different grits. At least you can tell your wife that when she sees the price tag... who cares, it's a cool sharpener.
Well, I took a couple of cheap dull knives (an OT stockman and an old cable knife) and tried it out, just to get used to it before I put a good blade on it. I used light pressure just like everybody says. I went carefully, and only did about 20 seconds worth of actual blade-on-diamond time, as DMT says that's about equal to 5 minutes on an oilstone. Just the fine side so far. I could not believe how sharp they got so quickly. You diamond guys were right all along. It was real sharp, but still toothy - a great working edge. I still took a few strokes on the black arkansas to polish it up to "screaming" sharp. I'm far from a sharpening expert but I'm amazed at the results I got so quickly.
On the down side, there is a tiny area at one end that didn't get any diamonds on it. However, it's at the very edge, where I'd never go over anyway. Not worth sending back. And the non-skid mat they include is no substitute for the plastic base. Most definitely buy the plastic base. It has a handle on the bottom so you can turn it over and use it to lap your natural stones.
Oh yeah, and shop around. Some places have this item at hair-raising prices. It's not cheap anywhere, but I got the base and the duo-sharp at Knives Plus for $81 combined. That's the best I could find but I didn't spend a lot of time looking. I'm pretty happy with this set-up and even though it's not cheap, I look at it as a long-term investment. Check 'em out.
I've been lusting after the Duo-Sharp for a while and I just got mine in the mail today. I got the Fine/Coarse, since I have no use for Extra Coarse and as far as Extra Fine goes, I still wanted to finish on a black surgical arkansas stone. These are the grits most people recommended when I asked about it a while ago.
This thing is economical, because it comes out cheaper than buying two 8" DMT bench stones of different grits. At least you can tell your wife that when she sees the price tag... who cares, it's a cool sharpener.
Well, I took a couple of cheap dull knives (an OT stockman and an old cable knife) and tried it out, just to get used to it before I put a good blade on it. I used light pressure just like everybody says. I went carefully, and only did about 20 seconds worth of actual blade-on-diamond time, as DMT says that's about equal to 5 minutes on an oilstone. Just the fine side so far. I could not believe how sharp they got so quickly. You diamond guys were right all along. It was real sharp, but still toothy - a great working edge. I still took a few strokes on the black arkansas to polish it up to "screaming" sharp. I'm far from a sharpening expert but I'm amazed at the results I got so quickly.
On the down side, there is a tiny area at one end that didn't get any diamonds on it. However, it's at the very edge, where I'd never go over anyway. Not worth sending back. And the non-skid mat they include is no substitute for the plastic base. Most definitely buy the plastic base. It has a handle on the bottom so you can turn it over and use it to lap your natural stones.
Oh yeah, and shop around. Some places have this item at hair-raising prices. It's not cheap anywhere, but I got the base and the duo-sharp at Knives Plus for $81 combined. That's the best I could find but I didn't spend a lot of time looking. I'm pretty happy with this set-up and even though it's not cheap, I look at it as a long-term investment. Check 'em out.