Have Sharpmaker - Need DMT Diamond Advice

[revv11]

I'm new to sharpening, so I figured the Spyderco Sharpmaker would be a good first sharpener. It does a fine job on knives that are in good condition, but it may not be the right tool for many of my kitchen knives which have been neglected for years.

I am interested in learning how to sharpen freehand. What two grits of DMT Diamond stones would complement the Sharpmaker and expand my sharpening capabilities?

 

[gunmike1]

I am in the same boat, and I just got a DMT X coarse benchstone for serious reprofiling and chip removal. It cuts like a champ, it's a quantum leap above even the sharpmaker diamond rods, and possibly hundreds of times better than the brown rods for reprofiling. I am going to get a DMT fine (on advice from others here) to refine the work the DMT X coarse does, as the jump to the brown rods is huge, and it takes forever to refine the X coarse DMT edge with them. After using the DMT fine rods the sharpmaker should do the trick from there.

 

[Icutmyself]

I'm in that boat too...looking for my first sharpening system....don't really know what I need...I have a nice chef's knife and a few pocket kives with serrations I would love to sharpen, but don't really know what I need. I called DMT and the woman recommended the Adeluxe but I first want to check with you guys..already made the mistake of buying one of those cross steel plastic handled sharpeners....yuck....I like the lansky universal sytem too...29 bucks from amazon....would either system do me fine? Is one easier to use than the other? Maybe the spyderco sharpmaker would do me better?

 

[HoB]

In principle all you need is a coarse or x-coarse stone. A DMT works well, you can even lean it against the Sharpmaker rods. To have an intermediate stone in between the coarse/x-coarse (or xx-coarse if you have to dough) and the Sharpmaker grays is nice but not essential. As a first setup, I would go with the x-coarse, the Sharpmaker and a leather strop with some compound. Everything else is luxury. On the DMT I would go with the Diasharp (continouse surface) instead of the benchstones (interrupted surface). I find that tips sometime get hung up in the holes. Not a big issue though.

 

[gunmike1]

In principle all you need is a coarse or x-coarse stone. A DMT works well, you can even lean it against the Sharpmaker rods. To have an intermediate stone in between the coarse/x-coarse (or xx-coarse if you have to dough) and the Sharpmaker grays is nice but not essential.

For my Jess Horn with the ZDP I consider an intermediate stone essential. I originally used the Diamond Sharpmaker rods to sharpen it flat to the stone, but had some convexing and applied a microbevel. When I got my DMT X coarse I brought the knife back to 100% to remove the convexing and microbevel. I tried refining it on the brown rods in the benchstone setting, but it was taking forever and not removing the microserrations from the DMT completely. Of course, ZDP is going to be much worse than most any other steel in this regard, so the brown rods will probably work fine on most other knives after the DMT X coarse, but just take longer than a DMT fine would to do the same trick. Other advantages of the DMT fine would be having the option of using a coarser finish than the Spyderco mediums.

 

[HoB]

Agreed. But even if you don't remove the striations from the coarse DMT completely in one setting, you are polishing those microserrations and you still get a very sharp and very aggressive edge that still easily shaves.

If you go for a really polished edge especially on the more wear resistant steels, I completely agree with you that a grit in between is pretty much necessary.