Edge Pro Matrix resin bond diamond stones

Thanks! I have the 250, 650 and 1000 DM stones and the Edge Pro leveling kit with the 240 alox. I will be ordering the 80 DM stone soon and will add a bag of 60 grit sic to use on the 250 DM. That leaves the tile in the box for sand with the 80 grit stone.

I really like the new DM stones and use them on my S30V and up steels, sticking with a set of Shapton Glass stones for kitchen knives (ours, family and friends).
 
Interesting. Apologies to Econ for giving bad advice. I'm surprised it will work given that it's finer than 60 grit and less had than SiC.

If beach sand will work I have to conclude the particle size and material hardness don't matter much for dressing these stones.
 
All the sand I have used is much coarser than 60 grit and lasts much longer than sic as it isn't nearly as friable. Since all you are doing when dressing the Matrix stones is removing some resin the abrasive doesn't need to be very hard, just tough. When dressing the 80 grit stones with coarse sand it seems like it must be a bad idea but it works better than anything else I have tried and doesn't change the thickness of the stone if you don't overdo it.

Particle size doesn't matter too much as long as it is big enough. Roughly I think the abrasive needs to be as large as the diamond in the stone. 5 micron works well for the 4k which is 5 micron as well. Settling on 240 grit was a compromise so you would only need one size for the stone that do need dressing occasionally. The 80 and 250 don't load up like the finer stones, it seems the swarf is large enough that they self dress while sharpening, just don't use too much pressure. How much depends on the steel and surface area of contact, they don't like small contact areas like setting a new bevel so be real gentle at first. If their cutting action slows down you have been using too much pressure.
 
The last thing I want to do is get into a disagreement with Diemaker about his stones. I'll respectfully disagree with some of his comments about beach sand. While beach sand certainly could be larger than 60 grit, this would unusual. All natural beach sand will vary from larger to smaller particles, of course, but in general most of it is finer than 60 grit. (For a while I had a career as a civil engineer specializing in soils. I literally ran a dirt lab. I know more than a little about dirt and soils.)

I won't disagree that it works well. I haven't tried it, but if Diemaker says it works, I'm sure it works.
 
Perhaps it depends on the beach. This whole thing has me excited. I don't use my blaster much nowadays, but I have a couple bags of aluminum oxide taking up floor space.
 
I just dressed about 25ea. 80, 250, and 4000 freshly molded stones yesterday to get a better understanding of it. The pool filter sand would break down a little faster than the 60 grit black sic that EP sells and the 240 alox seemed to break down the fastest, not the way I remembered it from the ones I have done before. I used the sand for the 80s, the 60 grit sic for the 250s, and the 240 grit alox for the 4000s.

There is a big difference between sand grains from different beaches. Size, composition, and how smooth the grains are will differ wildly. The stuff I have is from a deposit about a mile from the current channel of the Columbia River and looks more crushed than worn smooth from being washed around. Based on the 60 grit sic I would say the bigger grains are about 40 grit.
 
Awesome to see them available straight from Edge Pro! Way to go! One suggestion: have the approximate micron size listed for each stone, so those of us who use the Unified Grit Chart can get your stones placed in the correct spot to help us determine which ones we need at whichever stage of sharpening we want to add them.
 
loonybin loonybin I caution you about that approach. Micron ratings are most useful when considering products within a series, rather than between them, though if that is all one has to go by it is of course still useful. For example it is (I believe) stated somewhere in this thread that the Diamond Matrix 2300 stone was engineered to follow the Edge Pro 1000, but the 1000 stone actually has a smaller micron rating (it is in the FEPA F scale).
 
Mr.Wizard said:
loonybin loonybin I caution you about that approach. Micron ratings are most useful when considering products within a series, rather than between them, though if that is all one has to go by it is of course still useful. For example it is (I believe) stated somewhere in this thread that the Diamond Matrix 2300 stone was engineered to follow the Edge Pro 1000, but the 1000 stone actually has a smaller micron rating (it is in the FEPA F scale).
Click to expand...
Have you seen the Unified Grit Chart that some folks did several years ago on knifeforums (is that place still in existence?)? Some folks did the hard work of getting data entered for many of the manufacturers and different rating scales. It's incredibly helpful!
 
loonybin loonybin Not only have I seen Komitadjie's Grand Unified Grit Chart, I was active on KnifeForums during its development and it inspired me to develop and maintain my own chart which I call the "Grand Logarithmic Grit Chart" in credit to the original. The current version contains the Diamond Matrix stones described in this thread. I encourage you to take a look; it resides at http://myplace.frontier.com/~mr.wizard/GLGC/ and is free to access but not to distribute. The README.txt contains many details necessary to fully understand the chart, as well as credits such as the one above and license terms.
 
loonybin said:
Awesome to see them available straight from Edge Pro! Way to go! One suggestion: have the approximate micron size listed for each stone, so those of us who use the Unified Grit Chart can get your stones placed in the correct spot to help us determine which ones we need at whichever stage of sharpening we want to add them.
Click to expand...
I will advise Cody again about this, but in the meantime, the micron sizes are 180, 80, 35, 17, 8, 5. As has been said before abrasive size makes less of a difference than everything else, including the quality of the abrasive.

Yes, the 2300 and 4000 Matrix stones were designed to be the next two after the alox 1000 from EP. The other four Matrix stones came later.
 
Mr.Wizard said:
I encourage you to take a look; it resides at http://myplace.frontier.com/~mr.wizard/GLGC/ and is free to access but not to distribute.
Click to expand...

Has anyone had trouble viewing this directory? I clicked the link myself just now and was surprised by a message "Forbidden You don't have permission to access this resource." Reloading the page however fixed it. If this is an ongoing problem I need to be aware of it.
 
Reloading did not successfully load the page at the time of this post.

However, a minute later I was able to view the .png file.
 
Mr.Wizard said:
Has anyone had trouble viewing this directory? I clicked the link myself just now and was surprised by a message "Forbidden You don't have permission to access this resource." Reloading the page however fixed it. If this is an ongoing problem I need to be aware of it.
Click to expand...
I had seen both png files after your post
 
Today I recieved my 80 grit matrix stone. I tried it out after dressing it with 60 grit silicon carbide and man does this thing remove metal. Thank you D Diemaker for a really good product. I'm planning to buy the whole series one stone at a time.
I wonder one thing though. Somewhere I read, don't know where, that when one uses diamond stones on soft steels there is a risk that the steel, don't know how to put it, "folds" around the diamonds and grinds the holding media. The result is that the diamonds falls out of the media and the stone loses cuttingpower. Is this a problem that anyone has experienced?
 
Yes, if the steel is too soft diamonds don't work even acceptably, but then neither does the edge once sharpened IME. The steel has to be very soft for these stones not to work. It seems that with very soft steel the diamonds don't really cut chips out as much as just mush the steel around making a mess of it. As always keep the pressure light to avoid tearing the diamonds out. How much is something you will learn pretty fast if you do use too much pressure but a quick dress and it will be good as new. The 60 grit is too fine for the 80 grit stone. 36 grit sic is about the finest that will get that stone working well. I recommend sand to dress the 80 and don't use your good dressing plate, that 80 grit stone is hard on everything.
 
D Diemaker
I know you mentioned how these can be dressed with the 60 sic and 240 Alox grit sand, but will a 140 Diamond Atoma plate work as well for either of them?
 
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