I don't realize why

N

nedocervar

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I bought recently an expensive extra coarse DMT diamond bench stone.
According to direction I used light pressure to reprofile a knife of mine (very good VG10 Spyderco steel). I became quickly aware that my relatively inexpensive coarse SiC stone was faster a lot. But in many BF threads I was reading experts to assert that DMT diamond stones are the best choice for rough or initial sharpening unless has a belt sander.
Where did I make mistakes? Can someone give me an explanation? Maybe pressure? How much light? Just as an indication: only the weight of the knife, of my hands, arms, others?
Thanks in advance.
-Nedo Cervar
 
SiC is *much* faster than diamond when heavy force is applied, many times to one. You can't go heavy on a diamond pad as you will just wear it out.

-Cliff
 
Thank you Cliff Stamp.
After your reply I become more appeased.
From now on I will reserve the diamonds for reprofiling really thin knives that I can't pres hard on because they flex too much, or for flatten any bench stones (even if it sound a "little" luxury).
I hope this will help other guys like me to understand.
- Nedo Cervar
 
Yes, the advantage of a coarse diamond plate over a coarse waterstone is not speed, but the fact that the coarse waterstones wear terribly quickly and require constant flattening (while most coarse oil stones clog, dull and cut too slowly). That puts it at the top of the price/performance-hassle heap in coarse grits.
 
Yuzuha, I agree with you. In addition to what you have told, put yourself in my shoes.
I am an inexperienced (maybe not in any rate...). For example, if you and Cliff Stamp told me that a particular stone is the best for reprofiling, I believe in you. Furthermore, if this thesis is reinforced by some grafic where speed and sharpness are set on Cartesian co-ordinates, my belief begin to start a certainty.
I think that Cliff's favourite maxim is very appropriate here: "The one unforgivable sin, the offence against one's own integrity, is to accept anithing all simply on authority".
Marginal note.
I don't use SiC waterstone but coarse SiC dry stone from Razor Edge System (waterstone is too messy to taste of my kitchen - laboratory!), and it doesn't require costant flattening.
One thing to consider besides is that when you are just reprofiling you don't need to be all that accurate with your first cut at setting bevel.
- Nedo Cervar
 
Rofl, you should see how fast a Nanaiwa 80 grit Golden or 120 grit Green Lobster stone dissintigrates! Every stroke shaves off a layer of grit (you could probably make a few strokes and then scrape the grit off the knife onto an iron plate and lap for quite a while before going back to the stone for another load of grit). You can use one up reprofiling a couple of knives... fortunately they are less than $20. For really coarse work, I sometimes wish I had one of those old waterstone wheels you sometimes see on old farms (you know the 3-4" wide, yard in diameter grinding wheels with a water trough and foot pedals, or sometimes a pully for a take-off from a steam tractor)... They make a hollow grind but with such a large radius that it might as well be flat.... not that I'd have a place to put such a thing though.
 
Yes, teh coarse waterstones hollow fast. I use a 200 SiC waterstone, and if you want to keep it flat you would need to lap it after every use. I cut it into blocks, this gives me four sides. Plus when you are doing rough work you don't need true flat anyway, and you can adjust the stone contact to keep the stone level again.

Yes that is the same thing I keep the DMT's for, very thin knives that you can't press very hard on. I would not use them to flatten a stone, you can do that with just sand. Some people have used them to resurface ceramic hones, but this is also really expensive considering the cost of the DMT hones.

-Cliff
 
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