Finally added diamonds

JJ_Colt45

JJ_Colt45

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Joined
Sep 11, 2014
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I have been in the process of updatimg all my sharpening stones and equipment ... I was a bit torn wondering if I should just invest the money into a Wicked Edge system or something similiar ...

but after considering it I decided I still actually enjoy hand sharpening my knives ... mostly that means touch ups and keeping them sharp ... but on occasion as most I may let a blade get a bit duller and need to spend more time to sharpen it ...

and I have recently added a few knives with steels requiring diamonds to sharpen or diamonds to have to make reprofiling or repairing a knife much faster and easier ...

so after trying a few and looking around I decided as the diamond additions to my sharpening supplies I went with DMT Polka Dot Duosharp 10" plates with a base ... these are the double sided plates so one extra coarse/coarse and one fine/extra fine ...

and I add 3 DMT Diafold Polka Dot single sided sharpeners a Blue Coarse ... a Red Fine ... and a Green Extra Fine ... for easy carry alongs and for tight spots like bear the ricasso or small knives ...

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I will post sometime later to see how I like and get along with these ... after being used to Shapton Glass and Chosera Pro with a few odd stones like Norton Combo Crystolon/India ... and a few others ... I'm sure it will take me a break in period and a learning curve for the diamonds ... but looking forward to that.

JJ
 
I was wondering from those of you that use these DMT Diamond Polka Dot Plates ... do you use them dry? or with water? or water with a drop of dishsoap?

I am thinking they need a break in period but found a bit of water with a drop of dish soap gave a good feedback when I first tried them.

So I'm curious as to how others use them?

Thanks JJ
 
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That's a great set-up you have. I use mine with water and have great results. After use I add Dawn soap, clean them up, then dry them. Be careful not to press too hard or the diamonds pre-maturely wear, and also be careful with your knife tips. I sometimes mistakenly get my tips hung up in the dots.

At this time in my life I mostly use the DMT over all my other sharpeners. I have Japanese water stones, oil stones, KME kit with Diamond and Arkansas, Sharpmaker, Smith Tri-Hone, and a few cheapo types. I find the DMT's to be fast and convenient.
 
I wasn't sure where to post it ... figured it would get more hits in general as mentioned but I thought most sharpening questions usually get referred to tinkering and emblesihment ...

but I see trying to post from my phone that I missed that mark also lol

So yes please could a mod move this thread to general discussion? ... or tinkering and embelishments if you feel that is where it belongs?
 
MolokaiRider said:
That's a great set-up you have. I use mine with water and have great results. After use I add Dawn soap, clean them up, then dry them. Be careful not to press too hard or the diamonds pre-maturely wear, and also be careful with your knife tips. I sometimes mistakenly get my tips hung up in the dots.

At this time in my life I mostly use the DMT over all my other sharpeners. I have Japanese water stones, oil stones, KME kit with Diamond and Arkansas, Sharpmaker, Smith Tri-Hone, and a few cheapo types. I find the DMT's to be fast and convenient.
Click to expand...

Thank you ... I think it will finish out all my sharpening needs now ... I still am really enjoying my Shapton Glass and Chosera Pro stones ... and still use my Norton Combo stones for some knives ...

but these will give me the best option for some newer knives or major profiling or repairs if I have to do either.
 
Whoa, $270. just for those 2 stones. Well, that's still way- way more economical than the Wicked Edge lll. Six years back
I purchased the x coarse & coarse, DMT 11.5 x 2.5" dia diamond stones and those were $70. each. Now they are $75.. My
coarse is worn but still working. I use them with soapy water. I haven't noticed they are faster than my JUM-3, SiC grit. So,
a lot of times I'll use it and just finish off on a fine diamond when sharpening the vanadium steels. Still, the 4" x 10" size is
impressive. 40 sq. inches to work on... Man. DM
 
Nice setup. My preferred setup is similar, but with 8” stones. And I often finish on Spyderco ceramics or a hard strop with 1micron paste. The stones do take a few sharpenings to break in.

I have used the benchstones dry and with water. If dry, I would keep a wet paper towel handy to wipe away the steel dust, and then dry it before continuing. But lately I’ve been just using that wet paper towel to keep the stone wet and just dry it off once, when finished. I have noticed nothing different, and it’s easy to get used to the feedback dry or wet. No real preference.

Haven’t tried soap as I haven’t needed it.

Enjoy it! DMT stones are a great base for sharpening since they’ll do almost anything well.
 
David Martin said:
Whoa, $270. just for those 2 stones. Well, that's still way- way more economical than the Wicked Edge lll. Six years back
I purchased the x coarse & coarse, DMT 11.5 x 2.5" dia diamond stones and those were $70. each. Now they are $75.. My
coarse is worn but still working. I use them with soapy water. I haven't noticed they are faster than my JUM-3, SiC grit. So,
a lot of times I'll use it and just finish off on a fine diamond when sharpening the vanadium steels. Still, the 4" x 10" size is
impressive. 40 sq. inches to work on... Man. DM
Click to expand...

actually not that high got the set with base $210 ... for two sided plates making 4 stones really plus the nice base that wasn't as expensive as some non diamond stones. The Diafolds singke sided were $40.00 each.

I will have to get used to the Polka Dot plates but I think a few old onives to practice and break then in it should handle anything I need for most pf my life if not all of it.
 
Yes, I was likely looking from a different site. Yes that surface takes some getting use to. Your stones don't have a continuous area at one end. It's that area I find useful in working the belly and tips. Good luck, DM
 
JJ_Colt45 said:
I was wondering from those of you that use these DMT Diamond Polka Dot Plates ... do you use them dry? or with water? or water with a drop of dishsoap?

I am thinking they need a break in period but found a bit of water with a drop of dish soap gave a good feedback when I first tried them.

So I'm curious as to how others use them?

Thanks JJ
Click to expand...

I find water cut with abit of dishsoap greatly helps the feel of the diamond stones.

Especially when they are new I really get the feeling that the steel is sort of skipping off the peaks of the diamond grit. The water with dish soap really helps this. As the stones break in abit that feeling decreases.

Also using the stones dry especially when they are breaking in will cause little diamond dusts to come loose. This can easily scratch your blade. The water with the dishsoap helps capture this dust.
 
Thank you David Martin David Martin ... I'll need a bit of luck to get comfortable on diamonds after using whet stones for 30 plus years ... and I opted to not get the stone with the continuous finish on the end because I kept a couple coarser continuous stones ... and hope I can finish on the Shapton Glass and wood strop ... for the few tools I may need to sharpen.
 
Lapedog said:
I find water cut with abit of dishsoap greatly helps the feel of the diamond stones.

Especially when they are new I really get the feeling that the steel is sort of skipping off the peaks of the diamond grit. The water with dish soap really helps this. As the stones break in abit that feeling decreases.

Also using the stones dry especially when they are breaking in will cause little diamond dusts to come loose. This can easily scratch your blade. The water with the dishsoap helps capture this dust.
Click to expand...

Thank you Lapedog Lapedog ... I was using just a bit of dish soap it seemed to help ... and I thought after a break in period ... and more me getting used to using them ... it will probably feel completely different.

Using a couple old kitchen knives to practice with ... the first thing I noticed was catching the tip on the polka dot pattern ... that I'm sure is just my technique and something I'll have to learn just how to move as I come to the tip.

But it wasn't long to tell how much difference in the cutting speed over anythimg I've used before ... but it's time an old dog learns a new trick or two.

Thanks for all your feedback guys
 
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Yes, the good luck wish was for that point catching in that type of stone. I ended up using a point trailing stroke with the duo for that area of the knife.
4-5 knives and they'll get broke in. DM
 
Nice sharpening rig! They will last you a LONG time if used right. Let the stones do the work, light pressure (if you want to even call it pressure), keep 'em clean, don't use them to lap your Chosera's or other waterstones. I prefer the 8" DiaSharps (continuous surface), but it's all personal preference. Like David and others, I like to cut the water tension with soap (if I use water). I prefer using a VERY light coat of mineral oil (again, just preference). To thoroughly clean them, I use a scotch brite pad and Bar Keeper's Friend. For light cleaning, an eraser works.

You will notice a break in period. They'll seem really scratchy at first, but will smooth out over a handful sharpening sessions. The EF stone is an odd one to me. The 600 mesh stone (Fine) seems to provide a better edge than the 1200 mesh (Extra Fine). Many have noted that the EF stone feels like it has larger diamonds mixed in, and IIRC this is documented with SEM imaging on scienceofsharp. I don't care for it. I've sharpened over a dozen blades on that stone and it still feels weird. The Atoma 1200 stone has a MUCH better feel. But for me, the Fine 600 mesh stone is an excellent edge, and works really well on simple steels like 1095/W2/Blue/52100 all the way up through stuff like M4 and the S series vanadium steels. I really don't see much reason to refine much past 600 for most cutting chores a knife will see. Woodworking tools will have improved push cutting with a more refined edge, like the 1200 EF and even 8000 EEF stones.

After using all 6 DMT plates and all 4 Atoma plates, if I could choose only 4 stones out of the bunch, they would be: Atoma 140, DMT Coarse 325, DMT Fine 600, Atoma 1200.
 
Glad to see you stuck with freehand sharpening, and nice setup. I have really used the heck out of mine and over 8+ years, they've held up extremely well just using light pressure. I see wear and tear but they still work great. My most frequently used plate is the coarse. Except in cases where I need the XC to do some profiling or major edge repair, the coarse is the foundation and where I start with nearly all the knives I sharpen. The one I use the least is the extra-fine. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just haven't found it ever adds that much. I'll apex on the coarse, then depending on steel, I'll either go to something like a spyderco UF ceramic or a higher grit AlOx stone, or for high vanadium content steels, I'll go straight to my basswood strop that's embedded with cbn compound.

Two ideas to use as a cutting fluid on these stones:
* Castile soap and water. Lately I've included a bit of vegetable glycerin in that mix, for why, see here and here.
* Mineral oil. I believe that is what Obsessed with Edges Obsessed with Edges uses, and indeed, it does work extremely well and rinses off easily when done.
 
Yeah, I've liked mineral oil on mine, used very lightly as Stuart mentioned above; just enough to put a 'sheen' on the surface, without any drippage or puddling. Part of this preference is simply because the air's normally so dry in my locale (desert southwest U.S.A.), and anything I've tried with water just evaporates too fast to prevent swarf from clogging the hones. And because it's so dry, the mineral oil also helps keep my hands from drying out too (dish soap & water is murder for my dry hands, here).

But I've also noticed mineral oil does a better job keeping swarf from settling into and sticking in the recesses of the hone's surface, which keeps the hone cleaner in the long run and makes it easier to clean up without much aggressive scrubbing. Low-alloy stainless steels can really clog a diamond hone fast, because the swarf clings so tenaciously to the surface of the grit when used dry or with inadequate lubrication. Mineral oil keeps it from 'sticking' so tenaciously, so it can be simply wiped clean with a microfiber towel. Cleaning up the oiled hone is easy afterward; I DO use dish soap & warm/hot water for that, with an old toothbrush. Takes about 5 minutes or less; rinse with hot water, pat it dry with a clean towel and let it air out for a while before putting it away.
 
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