First Freehand sharpening Experiance..........

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Rifter

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I got my 2 DMT stones today, i got a 6x2 Fine and a 6x2 course. My first victim was my CS kobun, 420 steel. It was easy to reprofile, i put a realy small angle edge on it using the coarse stone(this thing eats metal like a monster) then polished it up best i could with the fine stone, now im thinking i should get a ultra fine stone. While the fine stone does put a fairly clean edge on it. It is not as hair poping as i was after, too many micro serations, im sure a ultra fine would fix this problem. Now, with my first knife done i started feeling confident and decided to put a new angle on my EDC, a CRKT M18. The differnce in steel's is most noticable as the AUS8 on my CRKT was much harder to remove. But still went faily smoothly. the blade shape on the M18 is a REAL pain to sharpen free hand but i still managed to put a hair poping edge on it(this steel seems to take a better edge than the kobun's 420, either that or i just sucked on the kobun) All in all i am happy with my freehand results, with diamond stones i can sharpen MUCH faster than my 204. I also touched up my Ka-bar and a custom 4" fixed blade. Touching up is also much faster than my 204, just 10 strokes per side on the fine stone and my knives were sharp again, i dont know how all you guys conned me into the getting a 204, but i will still use the 204 on serrations so i guess its not a waste. But for any fixed blade DMT is the way to go.
 
When you order the ultra fine, order a medium as well and put the Coarse in a drawer. After almost 3 decades snarpening free hand (and it wasn't pretty at first), I've only needed a coarse stone a few times to reprofile once a blade got nicked. They (especially a DMT) will wear out your knives prematurely if you use them often. They just eat up too much metal. For most regular maintainance including fairly hard use, a medium, then fine and then extra fine is all you need.

jmx
 
I noticed the coarse stone eats metal like a monster, thats why it was so easy to reprofile :) i dont plan on using it much unless im putting a differnt angle on something. However it did say on the box that the first couple of time you use it, it will seem extra rough until you break it in, hopefully it wears down a little :)
 
I agree, coarse stones aren't necessary unless your dealing wiht alot of steel to remove ( like chipped, nicked edges). You'll get better results with less work with the finer stones as you won't have all the deep scratches to take out after the coarse stone.
The ultra fine stone should help alot.Once you get good wiht it, you might want to look into a strop, and or an even finer stone, if your interested in scary sharp that is.
I don't really like diamond stones that well myself though. They work, just not the way I would like, mostly in the finer grits.
I would look at ceramic stones sometime if I were you, for a finishing stone. They're as maintenance free and easy to use as the diamond stones, but can put on a much finer edge.
Part of the fun of free hand sharpening is seeing just how sharp a knife will get :)
 
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Hmm, I do have a 204, the ceramic stones dont seem to work as well as diamond for me. However i dont go for super scary sharp edge when i sharpen, as all my knives are Users and get used and abused, I put on a good fairly thick Utilty edge on most of them. I dont see the point of getting a SCARY SUPER EDGE on a knife, there just isnt enugh metal behind it. Because at work it will be dull in a hour from cutting cardboard/plastic etc, anyways.
 
I don't have a Sharpmaker and have actually been thinking of adding one of them as well as a couple DMTs to my collection and perhaps a translucent extra fine HA to finish the set off while they're still available. With all my years of sharpening,I've gone for real sharp, butnot hair popping because I also wanted strong edges. My new challenge is to learn how to put an edge on like what came on my Chris Reeves small Sebenza. Seems both hair popping sharp and strong.

The funny thing is, Chris recomends a Sharpmaker! This might also be because it seems like it would be harder to really damage a knife with the Sharpmaker as opposed to something your standart Norton medium or coarse stone nevermind something like a DMT coarse in the hands of a newbie.

Again, just my opinion,

jmx
 
Sharp often, and you'll find your need to use even a medium stone is rare. I use just one or two soft swipes on my smoothest stone about once a week, keeps the edge straight and razor sharp. Like with most things, frequent light maintenance is the key, rather than letting it get out of hand and having to do infrequent heavy maintenance.
 
rather than a DMT ultra fine get a syderco ceramic ultra fine i use mine much more than my DMT UF - the spydie ceramic is a must have imho - they are high though, like $45 or so, but DMT aint cheap either!!

sifu
 
Rifter,
Please don’t draw too fast conclusions from only two knife sharpening. Diamond whetstones have something what could be called as “break in”. Brand new diamond whetstones cuts much more aggressively than it should be expected considering their claimed grit. So your fine stone cuts more or less like coarse and your coarse one cuts like x-coarse. After you will sharpen about dozen or so knives they will break in and cut less aggressively, later this level will stay continuous for long time.

Next, don’t use too much pressure onto your blade when sharpening. It is impossible to break diamond abrasive particles as itself but you could break them out of the nickel plating they are embedded in.

Last, don’t hurry up with u-fine stone buying until you’ll break in your whetstones. Greatly probably you will cope with finishing touch with your Sharpmaker using it either in V-mode as well as in bench stone mode. Believe me or not, but in my experience the edge finished on natural or ceramic whetstone is more durable and last longer than the one finished on the same grit diamond abrasive. Just make some strokes on medium rods and then finish on fine ones – this should be enough for edge finishing and further maintenance.

BTW, it is no medium grit among DMT Diamond sharpening surfaces. They have x-coarse (black), coarse (blue), fine (red) and u-fine (green) ones. Continuous surfaces – DiaSharp - have 3 grits only skipping x-coarse.
 
I use the X-coarse DMT stone once on each knife I own cause I like to reprofile them to the settings of the DMT (or Lansky) alignment system. Using the X-coarse is great because the reprofiling goes quickly, and I don't wear down my coarse stone doing it. After the first reprofiling, I agree that only the coarse followed by the fine, and often only the fine is necessary to keep the knife very sharp. I don't use the X-fine because I'm not seeking such a smooth edge anyway, and it seems to me that an x-fine in diamond is over-kill and way to expensive anyway. If I want that kind of smoothness, I'll take a few swipes on a ceramic rod....
 
Originally posted by Rifter
I noticed the coarse stone eats metal like a monster, thats why it was so easy to reprofile :) i dont plan on using it much unless im putting a differnt angle on something. However it did say on the box that the first couple of time you use it, it will seem extra rough until you break it in, hopefully it wears down a little :)
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The diamond stones will wear down some and won't be as course after you use them awhile. There are some steels that the diamond stones are the only way to go if you don't want to spend what seems like an eternity sharpening one knife. I just replaced a fine DMT that I have had for years and it had been used heavily, and was almost slick.
 
wait till you try out a leather strop with some nice diamond compound : )
it's really nice and fine that way, removing very minimal amounts & great way to get very sharp
 
Exactly how you managed to dredge up a thread from 2002, I do not know.
But it is now closed.

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