t1mpani
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2002
- Messages
- 5,528
It seems like somebody should actually answer your question regarding DMT. They've told you it's different, but not really how. The Sharpmaker is more of a burnisher, or touch-up tool. If you--and I highly recommend this--touch up your knives constantly and never allow them to really get dull, the Sharpmaker will do very well for you. Think of it in terms of the old phrase, "a stitch in time saves nine." If you need to sharpen a genuinely dull blade, however, or want to reprofile an edge to a new angle, the Sharpmaker is far from the most efficient tool.
DMT "stones" cut steel significantly faster than the ceramics on the Sharpmaker. Even the diamond rods on the sharpmaker don't remove as quickly as they have a much smaller surface area than even the hand-held diafold DMTs, and don't come in the range of grit choices that DMT offers, either. For serious metal removal, the coarse and extra-coarse (blue and black) from DMT can do in five or ten minutes what takes about an hour or better on the Sharpmaker.
This is not a DMT-beats-Sharpmaker argument, though, as you don't always want to pull metal off that fast. DMT also makes very fine diamond hones and ceramics, which are made more for burnishing, just like the Sharpmaker, and they perform equally well, but no better.
One thing on the DMTs---there are ignorant people who may pop in here telling you that they "wear out" very quickly. Just smile and nod and walk away slowly, as they're very dedicated to this position.
What the DMTs do is break-in after the first five or ten sharpenings, and the packaging that comes with them tells you this up front. They will cut VERY aggressively when they're new, as they have a lot of almost fully exposed diamonds on top that cut deeply (you may notice some of the scratches in the edge are significantly deeper than the ones surrounding it). However, these little bits aren't imbedded well into the surface of the sharpener and will break off after a few uses. As this happens, the sharpener will settle down and start producing consistent results. I've FINALLY worn down my black diafold to the point that I'm going to have to get a new one as it's not cutting as fast as the blue one, which is actually a finer grit. This is after five or six years and literally hundreds of knives (I'm not a big fan of most factory edges) and the duafold really is a pretty small sharpener, so compare to one of the full-sized bench stones that has three times the surface area. The diafolds just get used more because they ride so nicely in my pocket. 
So yes, they do slow down a bit from when they're new in the package, but once they settle in they last a LONG time, and unlike traditional or ceramic stones they stay flat.
Both DMT and the Spyderco sharpening products are very high quality, it just depends what you want to do and how you want to do it. I spent a lot of years sharpening on traditional oil stones, and now really prefer freehand as I like to choose my own angles based on the uses a particular knife will be put to, so the range of DMTs suits me better. But, I do have a Sharpmaker, and for when I'm in the middle of something and notice my knife isn't biting the way it used to, a few quick licks to clean up the micro-bevel is all it takes.
DMT "stones" cut steel significantly faster than the ceramics on the Sharpmaker. Even the diamond rods on the sharpmaker don't remove as quickly as they have a much smaller surface area than even the hand-held diafold DMTs, and don't come in the range of grit choices that DMT offers, either. For serious metal removal, the coarse and extra-coarse (blue and black) from DMT can do in five or ten minutes what takes about an hour or better on the Sharpmaker.
This is not a DMT-beats-Sharpmaker argument, though, as you don't always want to pull metal off that fast. DMT also makes very fine diamond hones and ceramics, which are made more for burnishing, just like the Sharpmaker, and they perform equally well, but no better.
One thing on the DMTs---there are ignorant people who may pop in here telling you that they "wear out" very quickly. Just smile and nod and walk away slowly, as they're very dedicated to this position.
What the DMTs do is break-in after the first five or ten sharpenings, and the packaging that comes with them tells you this up front. They will cut VERY aggressively when they're new, as they have a lot of almost fully exposed diamonds on top that cut deeply (you may notice some of the scratches in the edge are significantly deeper than the ones surrounding it). However, these little bits aren't imbedded well into the surface of the sharpener and will break off after a few uses. As this happens, the sharpener will settle down and start producing consistent results. I've FINALLY worn down my black diafold to the point that I'm going to have to get a new one as it's not cutting as fast as the blue one, which is actually a finer grit. This is after five or six years and literally hundreds of knives (I'm not a big fan of most factory edges) and the duafold really is a pretty small sharpener, so compare to one of the full-sized bench stones that has three times the surface area. The diafolds just get used more because they ride so nicely in my pocket. So yes, they do slow down a bit from when they're new in the package, but once they settle in they last a LONG time, and unlike traditional or ceramic stones they stay flat.Both DMT and the Spyderco sharpening products are very high quality, it just depends what you want to do and how you want to do it. I spent a lot of years sharpening on traditional oil stones, and now really prefer freehand as I like to choose my own angles based on the uses a particular knife will be put to, so the range of DMTs suits me better. But, I do have a Sharpmaker, and for when I'm in the middle of something and notice my knife isn't biting the way it used to, a few quick licks to clean up the micro-bevel is all it takes.
