kitchen knives on diamonds?

[KarlMaldensNose]

Anyone have experience sharpening their harder kitchen knives on diamond plates? I'm talking about Japanese style knives with hard, high carbon steels such as White, Blue Super, Blue #2, etc... even VG-10 on J-knives is treated fairly hard, harder than on Spydercos AFAIK. I'm curious about how not just high hardness carbon steel fairs on diamonds, but how ultra-thin edges do on them, as well.

 

[Jason B.]

The higher the hardness and higher the wear resistance the better the diamond stones work. They would work but I'm guessing water stones would be better for the job especially if it was a single bevel knife.

 

[pwet]

The higher the hardness and higher the wear resistance the better the diamond stones work.

and the thinner the edge the more dangerous coarsest diamond stones are.

there's no way i take a diamond plate coarser than a D8C to the edge of any of my japanese knives. when i thin a blade with my XXC or XC i always stop before hitting the edge and continue on a coarse waterstone. for repairs i grind at an obtuse angle with a diamond plate then restore the edge like i want the way i described above. and finer than dmt C waterstone works best in my books so ... no i don't recomend diamond plates for this purpose.

my aproach may be overkill but i've seen blue steel at 64-5hrc (watanabe custom) chipping everywhere after beeing reprofiled and sharpened on a D8XXC. the edge was polished after the plate but it happened the same. took a couple sharpening to stop. this never happened before reprofiling (had to because the knife was worn and got thicker behind the edge) and never did again after i sharpened it twice or so.

very thin and hard edge you find in japanese kitchen knives have very few things in common with your edc knife even if it's zdp@10°/side.

ymmv.

 

[David Martin]

Diamond will work but like nut, it may not be the best abrasive for sharpening high carbon . My stainless knives really respond to diamond stones . I sharpen my high carbon kitchen knives of 01 on Norton's crystolon stones and get good results . They take the effects of a strop nicely as well . Those thin blades are real easy to sharpen . DM

 

[Jason B.]

True, one must take care when using a very coarse diamond or you can actually tare out the edge as it collides into the peaks of the diamonds. A lot of that issue can be corrected by the use of a lighter pressure but if the blade is thin there's not much you can do, the fixed diamond just digs too deep at that point. You might want to look into a coarse Sic stone, it will cut just as fast on a carbon steel but be "softer" on the edge and less damaging.

 

[David Martin]

The Frenchman is correct ! As I've been shaving with a 1950's Rolls Razor which is essentially a up grade 'straight razor' of nonstainless . Which I had been sharpening on a X-fine diamond and stroping on leather with diamond slurry . I tried many times to obtain the level of sharpness that would give a good close shave but could not ! So, I tried sharpening it on a translucent Arkansas stone and strop on leather with the green rouge . Bingo ! It gave a great, close shave . So, nonstainless steels are different requiring different sharpening materials and diamonds are NOT the answer for all your sharpening needs . DM