Lansky and DMT Aligner

[Uncle Bill]

What's the difference, what's your preference, and why?

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I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but I would prefer THAT to their being educated by the state.

 

[Dannyc]

I have only the DMT Aligner, and not the Lansky. As far as the stones are concerned, they are much better than the ones found on the Lansky diamond kit from what I've read here, based on some forumites' experiences.

As to the kit itself, the only thing I don't like about the DMT Aligner, is that it doesn't have any marks on the angles, so you won't know what angle you're using. And it's made of hard plastic, which has the tendency to break if you're not careful.

Oh, and the clamp can't handle anything thicker than 3/16". I tried clamping something thicker, and it won't fit. Spines which has some sort of design (like a razorback or a Stryker-type blade spine) also can't be held well by the DMT Aligner, and tends to slip out during the sharpening process.

Just my 0.02

Dan

 

[Frantium]

Ummm... one more thing, my DMT Aligner's screw tends to untighten itself (it's only plastic) and I find it very annoying. I'll put it this way: the DMT has better stones, but the Lansky has better clamp, and can acommodate thicker blades with the supplied screw.


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Reynaert

 

[Root]

I used a DMT diamond-vee and cheap ceramic crotch sticks for years. When I bought my sebenza I bought a 600 grit DMT stone, later I bought a 1200 grit DMT stone and their aligner since they said it worked with bench stones too. I love the bench stones but the aligner is a POS it's more trouble than it's worth. I just free hand now. A sebeza finished on a 1200 grit stone is SHARP! I don't have any experiance with the Lansky stuff.

 

[dfhoward]

As Frantium said, the clamp on the Lansky and the DMT stones are the way to go. I have both. For years I used the stones that came with the Lansky. The work okay. I bought a couple of Lansky diamond stones but I don't really care for them. I bought a DMT aligner and I use the diamond "stones" from the with the DMT holder. This setup is the best so far. I use a black (extra coarse) DMT at a 15 degree angle, then a blue (coarse) or red (fine) at a 20 degree angle for a few strokes, finish by stropping on a piece of cardboard (not corrugated) to remove the burr. I can't shave very well with it but it cuts stuff I normally cut. By the way, I sharpened free hand for 15 or 20 years before getting a Lansky. I thought I could sharpen pretty well, until I saw someone use a Lansky. It took awhile to convince me, but I finally switched and never looked back.

Danny