Frustrating DMT Extra Fine Experience

Bill DeShivs said:
Diamond stones should be reserved for extra-hard/tough steels that require them.
A fine India stone, possibly followed by an Arkansas stone is usually all you need.
Bill
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I do not use anything but DMT + green rough with results nobody yet surpass, so far nobody shows anything better then whittling hair. All oil and water stones very messy and slow and DMT now not really expensive.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
OK, first of all I did not read through the thread, but since I've recently had the exact same issue develop with my DMT X-Fine I figure I'll chime in.

Try taking an old toothbrush and some tooth paste (or any soft bristled brush and mildy abbrasive cleaning compound) and scrubbing the stone. After two years of approx. once a week touch ups on my Native, my DMT X-Fine stone "clogged." It was almost undetectable during sharpening (by feel) but my edge results were the exact same as yours. Get it nice and sharp on the Fine, switch to X-fine for finishing and BAM, dull.

Try the soft brush and abrasive compound ;)
 
I do agree, diamonds excel at harder steels that tend to form a steel dust when sharpenig rather than clog pores, S30V is the only steel I have that I use often enough to care and it leaves a fine non clogging dust, other steels may clog diamonds.
 
Using WD 40 on diamond stones will help keep them from clogging, and increase the life of the hone.
 
Remember diamonds cut fast even the e-fine will cut very quickly. I think Blues may be on the right track. Try to just polish the edge bevel not the very edge and see if you get better results. Also after the fine you should only need 1 or 2 strokes per side on the e-fine. Use a very light touch your polishing with the e-fine not sharpening. It is really easy to round off or grind off the edge with higher grits and polishing. Once you do that you have to reset the edge.
 
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