deep into hard steel providing incredibly fast metal removal. I just got a CAM-5685 Camillus Marine Combat Knife, which (so far) appears to be a great large knife for the reasonable price of about $40 shipped (from Knifeworks). However, it came with a rather steep angled edge which was pretty rough. So I tried to sharpen it with my basic Lansky set up. Metal removal came slowly and with a lot of work. I found an Extra Course Diamond hone (for the Lansky) at the local Sportsman's Wh@rehouse for $13. I smoothed the hone out on an old Pakistani Bowie first then went to work on the Fighting Utility Knife. It worked very well. It really bites into the hard steel, rapidly and easily removing large amounts of material. I used the 25 degree angle setting on the Lansky which was significantly lower of an angle than what was ground at the factory. The Extra Course hone left a beautifully even (and wide) bevel the length of the blade. I repositioned the Lansky clamp (as I usually do). It worked fabulously. I admit that use of the Lansky is time consuming and doing the tip is tricky and doesn't always give me completely satisfactory results (at the tip), but the Lansky system works well for me albeit is somewhat slow due to jig set-up and adjustment particularly if you only need to touch-up a blade. Following the reprofiling with the Extra Course Diamond hone, I used the standard Lansky Course hone, followed by the standard Medium hone. These steps went much slower, and at some point I lost the perfect bevel left by the Extra Course Diamond hone. I think it happened because of the slight variation in angle due to repositioning of the jig and swinging right to left of the hones. This is a disadvantage of the Lansky, particularly with large knives, and is making me think of getting the Course and Medium Lansky Diamond hones 
rolleyes:$$$). I'm convinced that with the diamond hones less jig repositioning and hone swing would be involved resulting in an easier to achived consistant bevel. I still haven't put the final polish to the edge but I'm very impressed with the sharpness I've been able to put on this rugged knife, and it's mostly due to the Lansky Extra Course Diamond hone.
rolleyes:$$$). I'm convinced that with the diamond hones less jig repositioning and hone swing would be involved resulting in an easier to achived consistant bevel. I still haven't put the final polish to the edge but I'm very impressed with the sharpness I've been able to put on this rugged knife, and it's mostly due to the Lansky Extra Course Diamond hone.