Inexpensive diamond sharpener?

M

mikemck

Joined
Sep 22, 2000
Messages
1,221
I'm thinking I need a diamond sharpener, to sharpen an S90V blade. I was looking at the diamond rods for the sharpmaker, but honestly, it really irks me to pay $56 for a couple of traingular rods, and it seriously irks me that you have to buy them as a set, instead of having the option of buying them singly.

So, I am looking into other options as far as diamond sharpeners.

Anyone have any advice on a good inexpensive diamond sharpener? How about the Gatco Tri-Seps diamond?

The only blade I'm going to be sharpening with this is the S90V blade, because my Sharpmaker works great for all of my other sharpening needs.

TIA
 
I've found DMT flat diamond hones sufficient for all my sharpening needs. Bench stones IMHO are the most versatile, once you learn to use them, which isn't difficult; they're not cheap but then, you don't need anything else for all but the most recurved blades or bent knives. For those, a diamond coated rod will be required. For wood charving chisels and gouges, a set of slips will be required. Check out Lee Valley Tools (www.leevalley.com) for a very good selection of sharpening stones and kits.
 
DMT doesn’t require any references, they make the best diamond sharpeners, period.
Going with Eze-Lap you can get about 3/4 of performance for half price, so probably it would be better buy.
One diamond sharpener manufacturer more, btw quite underrated here – EdgeCrafter. Something like halfway between DMT and Eze-Lap. Their Model 420 – three 150x30 mm diamond abrasive plates with different grit interchangeable in magnetic holder – is quite enough for even advanced home sharpening and way cost efficient.

Returning to Sharpmaker. If you already have basic set and if you like it (able to obtain results what satisfy you) – I suppose the additional set of diamond rods would be the best solution anyway. Main advantage – you don’t need to change you techniques for different stages of sharpening (edge profiling and finishing). Also your edge profiled using Sharpmaker diamond rods will match exactly the angles for finishing touch. It is not warranted if you will profile your edge free hand using another sharpener and then turn to finishing and maintenance using Shrpmaker.

As to price – in case of any diamond sharpener it is proportional to diamond coated abrasive surface. Just recalculate the diamond coated square of Sharpmaker rods and compare it with competitive products. I think you will not consider Sharpmaker rods overpriced anymore.

Just me but I don’t see any need to buy the sharpener for one blade only if you can upgrade your favorite unit for the comparable price.

Opppsss, just considered that I didn’t answer the question about GATCO diamond Tri-Seps. It’s way too short for decent edge profiling and somewhat too coarse for finishing touch. Their original Tri-Seps ceramic sharpener is reasonable tool for touchup in field conditions, but the diamond one rater is not too successive successor...
 
Forget DMT they are expensive. Get Eze-Lap. Sometimes that can be less than half of what DMT costs. Go to http://www.eze-lap.com and look around. Knife stores on the web are cheaper than buying direct from Eze-lap.
 
Alberta Ed,

It's a recurve blade that I need to sharpen..Sorry I forgot to include that in the original post. The recurve is why I was thinking of the Tri-Seps, with the corners.

Sergiusz Mitin,

You have a good point there about the comparable costs once you take into account the diamond surface area. It still irks me badly that they won't sell the rods singly. I would gladly buy just one, which is all I need.

King Grinch,

Yes, I took a close look at Ez-Lap, and they are tempting. It's either the diamond rod for the sharpmaker or the ez-lap.

It's only because of the S90V that I will even consider using a diamond hone. I don't like diamond hones, and for the most part, I think they create more problems than they solve. They remove metal way too quickly and you can really destroy a blade in short order if you don't know what your doing.
I won't be using the diamond hone on any other blade that I own, for any reason.

The Gatco Tri-seps is just not really looking very practical, except for field use, so I guess I'm going to pass on that, and the flat hones won't work very well for the recurve.


Anyone want to sell me just one of their diamond sharpmaker rods?

Anyone wanna buy just one diamond sharpmaker rod?
 
This changes situation pretty noticeably. There are a lot of tools for touchup on recurved edges but really very few for decent edge reprofilling or restoring.
For recurved edge the Sharpmaker is one of the few reasonable choices. I also think that two diamond rods no way is overkill, just take into consideration that they will do 3/4 of entire job...
 
Hello,

Maybe yopu could get by with a free hand diamond rod sharpener like the Eze-Lap Mod. M, or the diamond rods Gerber, or Smith's cataloged?

I only own a few recurved blade's, but if you are willing to take your time they do a good job.



HTH:D:).
 
I see the Smith's brand of sharpening tools alot in hardware stores around here. Anyone have an opinion of that brand?
 
I've used a DMT diafold to sharpen my small Apogee (S90V, 3 1/4" recurved blade). I picked up a coarse/fine for $25 at the local gun show; prices on the web should be about the same.
 
The Eze-Lap model "M" diamond rod is my main field sharpener. I have no complaints at all about it and would suggest you look into that one. Relatively inexpensive and effective. I like that!
 
Personally I would get the Eze-Lap double sided folder or the 6 inch stone. I don't think diamond sharpeners remove too much metal too fast. Some would say the same about grinders. Modern day stainless steels are tough enough to take on diamonds. The steel aint gonna wear too fast esp CPM steels.
 
Eze-lap oval for recuves!

ezelap works great on all knives especially stainless.
 
However I would dare to doubt that someone could properly restore badly blunted or especially damaged edge on 4-ince long surface holding freehand both knife and sharpener. The same concerns edge reprofiling if you are not satisfied with actual condition or if actual sharpening angle doesn’t match your sharpening device with some preset angles.

Anyway I’m not enough good in sharpening to do it...

Just edited to add
Daniel,
I have seen them at IWA’2002 in Germany. Didn’t appeal to me too much, diamond coating looked pretty inconsistent. Plastic filling in holes was positioned noticeably lower than working surface what could obstruct sharpening at the tip area pretty badly. Price of flat bench stones (I didn’t see this one with 3 hones) also is not competitive with Eze-Lap for example.
I would go with Eze-Lap at this price point.
 
Thanks very much everyone, your advice is greatly appreciated.

I had thought a diamond hone was essential for sharpening S90V, but I was able to fairly easily sharpen a pretty dull blade to shaving sharpness, with 80 passes per side on the medium grit sharpmaker rods...that's not too bad, really.
As usual, the last 1" of tip is quit noticably less sharp, but that's another story.

Now I'm thinking I may not need a diamond hone at all, at least for the time being, but I guess that will depend on how often the S90V needs to be sharpened.
 
I'm not quite getting shaving sharp, but as a POOR man I have experimented with and come to use silicon carbide sandpaper in from 220 to 600 grit. I kinda strop my blades on it and get edges I can use.

Someday maybe a Sharpmaker... but for now cheap works!

Joe Shmoe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top