My first sharpener is the DMT Aligner.

snippy

snippy

Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
868
Thanks BladeFourms for guiding me to my first sharpener, the DMT Aligner ProKit. Made in USA.

I studied the heck out of everything that you guys share and I knew how to use the thing before it arrived. I'm so glad that I learned the basics of sharpening, and some of the nuances too. I'm quite sure that had I not studied first that I very well could have had a bad experience with my new sharpening tool. You guys ROCK!

I sharpened my Boker MTT and that bevel is beautiful. I then added a microbevel. I knew to go light and smooth and slow and WOW. My blade now scares me!

Probably a tough knife for my first ever sharpening, but THANKS TO ALL OF YOU I NAILED IT!

When I was done I noticed that DMT is located in My town! Marlborough MA. Maybe I will have to swing by and thank them for a very nice product.

Anyway, just wanted to share and say thanks.

Eric
 
A little trick you can do is use a piece of paper with some strop compound on it (I use flexcut gold) and wrap it around one of the stones and put it in the aligner and strop away. Only did that a few times but it seems to work pretty good as far as I can tell.
 
Thanks Bob. I have learned a good amount from you already. That is great news because I can buy the 2200 mesh ceramic stone and then use your strop trick. Probably all I will need.
 
Just a few tips and things to note on the Aligner. It doesn't play well with recurves in my experience, I tried sharpening a CRKT Drifter when I first got it and it didn't work very well. If your getting more stones getting a coarser stone may be a better idea before you pick up a finer stone to make reprofiles quicker if you have a habit of getting knives somewhat frequently. Using a sharpie to mark up the edges will make life a lot easier to see where your removing metal and make it easier to know how much more you have to remove.

Use a jewelers loupe, it make life a lot easier spotting the sharpie and seeing what's going on with the edge. Have a knife to practice on as practice makes perfect. I find something that's not very wear resistant works good for this as it will teach you to not use pressure and keep track of your progress when learning on diamond stones. A carbon steel kitchen paring knife would do the job quite well, Opinel and Old Hickory comes to mind but there are definitely other options out there. I just like using kitchen paring knives as their cheap and the simple blade shape makes it easy to sharpen so I can focus on my technique more than dealing with some weird blade shape.

Beyond that there is a lot of overlap when it comes to freehand and using the DMT Aligner so keep that in mind when your researching how to sharpen if you ever hit a point where you want to learn more to refine your technique even more.
 
I made a steel blank the same size as a stone,and use 3000 grit polish tape.Leaves a nice polished edge.
 
I bought a Magna Guide and love it. The results on low carbide steels was less than amazing (I can get the same sharpness elsewhere, not the precision though), the results on wear resistant steels was spectacular. I have never seen sharper S30V, my Elmax blade is sharp enough to shave with, and D2 was worked a lot better than anything shy of a belt sander did. I am very happy, but the edges aren't going to win beauty contests. Small price considering the sharpness I am getting.
 
Thanks again Bob. You are my personal consultant at this point! (You turned me onto the Aligner when you recommended to another BFer to get at least the clamp.)

I don't have any recurves, but I have a hawkbill. Thanks for confirming that I shouldn't try the hawkbill with the kit. All of my other knives have convex curves. And I have seen that many of you end up freehanding with occasional use of these system sharpeners as you get experienced. I actually tried 800 grit sandpaper freehand with the MTT before I got the kit. My blade was sharp, but my bevel was uneven.

With the aligner, I was able to restore a pretty good consistent bevel on the MTT:

7aq29.jpg



The edge is actually a little beat up again in this photo because I went around stabbing and slashing everything in sight. I am really brutal to the knife and it really doesn't look too fazed from my abuse. (I saw a quote from a member when I first joined that said: "Sharpen it like you love it. Use it like you hate it." - and I decided to embrace that attitude.)


bonzodog said:
I made a steel blank the same size as a stone,and use 3000 grit polish tape.Leaves a nice polished edge.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Didn't know about this polish tape. Thank you and noted. (Any favored brand or supplier? Thx.)

dkb45 said:
I bought a Magna Guide and love it. The results on low carbide steels was less than amazing (I can get the same sharpness elsewhere, not the precision though), the results on wear resistant steels was spectacular. I have never seen sharper S30V, my Elmax blade is sharp enough to shave with, and D2 was worked a lot better than anything shy of a belt sander did. I am very happy, but the edges aren't going to win beauty contests. Small price considering the sharpness I am getting.
Click to expand...

I saw the Magna Guide too. I went with the ProKit to save $15, but now if I buy the XXFine stone I will have spent more. lol.

Why won't your edges win beauty contests? Is it something with these super steels? (I have 440C on the MTT which is medium grade I think.)


--- Another question for all of you Knife experts if I may? ---

The back of the MTT is flat. I worked up a burr all along the edge and when I went to remove the burr it became apparent that the back of the knife is NOT perfectly flat.

What is the best way to get the back of the knife dead nuts flat? And the least expensive way?

Thanks again all. Loving my new knife hobby and this amazing forum.

(here is the back of the MTT):

or4w.jpg
 
Knife won't win any beauty contests because diamonds leave deeper scratches compared to other abrasives so even if you go up to EEF it won't be a mirror polish, but if you use the 3 and than 1 micron DMT compounds you can get a mirror. And well your on bladeforums mirror = beautiful just like with models skinny = beautiful.

As for getting it flat in the clamp I can't recall how to do that but from what I remember the guys using Wicked Edge have that issue and talk about it somewhat often so I would research what they do to counter that problem. Their both clamp systems and their solution should in theory work for you as well. If you don't find a solution with them that work for you look up the same with the lansky as that is quite popular and is another clamp system. I imagine adding in spyderco to the search may help as they aren't always flat and level towards the spine so that may help in your search. I would search for an answer and give it to you like usual but to be honest I am tired and never had to deal with a problem like this before so I am not sure if what I tell you would be the best answer.

As a side note I have noticed I have gotten better results when I used the paper + strop compound on my coarse DMT rather than using it on my Fine or EF DMT's. I found that even if your using the same type of paper and same compound but you have different backing you get slightly different results so experiment with it. From what I recall the more coarse surfaces seemed to make it a bit more aggressive and smoother surfaces made it less aggressive, for when I was dealing with paper backed by something. Just keep in mind I am talking about very small differences that you probably won't notice if your not looking for it. If you look at HeavyHanded's Washboard you probably get a vague idea of whats going on after looking at it and reading the description of it on how it works, with any luck it help explain why stropping on different surfaces will yield different results for you. (Keep in mind stropping on the DMT stone with paper and the Washboard are 2 different things, from what I hear you get a lot more feedback on the Washboard and overall it's just an extremely good product and worth looking into if it ever catches your interest.)
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ehand-Sharpening-Kits?p=13480019#post13480019
 
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Keep the info coming! Every nugget is appreciated.

As far as my extra question - I should clarify. I was able to get the clamp flat and tight on the blade no problem. I used setting 3 to re profile to approx 36 degrees.

Then I take the clamp off and take the stone out to run it flat (Zero degrees) across the back side to remove the burr. Well the flat 0 degree side of the knife is not perfectly flat.

I was thinking of holding it down on a belt sander until the back is a perfect plane, but then I worried about heating the steel up and ruining the heat treat.

Hopefully I'm explaining clearly but I'm still grasping at some of the proper lingo.

Thanks again my new brothers,

Eric
 
Next you need to (me too) find a plate that you can mount diamond lapping film onto and a leather strip to make an all in one reprofiling to mirror finish system.

The edges won't win a beauty contest because the motions used (I do kind of a zig zag back and forth down the edge) and the scratches left by diamonds makes the edge look really bad compared to other methods, but you abrade vanadium carbides, which makes the blades perform a lot better. I will take function over fashion every day.
 
I have a DMT Aligner and I like it for reprofiling. I made a strop attachment by cutting a piece of balsa wood the size of a DMT stone and gluing a thin piece of leather to it, then adding some compound to the leather. Even my crude strop makes a big difference in results.
 
dkb45 said:
Next you need to (me too) find a plate that you can mount diamond lapping film onto and a leather strip to make an all in one reprofiling to mirror finish system.

The edges won't win a beauty contest because the motions used (I do kind of a zig zag back and forth down the edge) and the scratches left by diamonds makes the edge look really bad compared to other methods, but you abrade vanadium carbides, which makes the blades perform a lot better. I will take function over fashion every day.
Click to expand...

Got it. The diamond can cut and shape all of the tough carbides instead of just running over them or knocking them out.

(At least I have a mental picture of what you mean. I swear that I was dreaming about sharpening blades and "saw" your explanation.)

Very very helpful information. Thank you.

[I picture the carbides as little spheres embedded in the steel (like a suspension) - but my awake brain says that; no! Molten steel is more like a solution than a suspension or colloid. But what about after it solidifies?]
 
snippy said:
Got it. The diamond can cut and shape all of the tough carbides instead of just running over them or knocking them out.

(At least I have a mental picture of what you mean. I swear that I was dreaming about sharpening blades and "saw" your explanation.)

Very very helpful information. Thank you.

[I picture the carbides as little spheres embedded in the steel (like a suspension) - but my awake brain says that; no! Molten steel is more like a solution than a suspension or colloid. But what about after it solidifies?]
Click to expand...

The way I view carbides in steel is like cement with chunks of steel in it. You can shape the cement with most things because the binding agent is weak, but you need to use something stronger than the bits of steel to cut it properly. If you shape it with something that can't abrade steel, the cement around the bits will wear away and the bits will come out, leaving a jagged surface. Now If you grind it with something that can abrade steel, everything is worn down and you are left with what can be a perfectly smooth surface.

If there is a better analogy or I am just horrible wrong feel free to correct me. I am great at analogies, but I am not very good at making them on a topic I only know a bit about.
 
So, my dream matches your analogy perfectly. Hopefully we got it right!

I was telling my Dad how this company, DMT, is in my town. He looks me in the eye and says - "The lady that lives right there has something big to do with that company"

Hopefully I will get to meet her!
 
The second knife into my DMT Aligner is my Case Mini Trapper. (CV)

Just couldn't get it to work. Blade is too small (7/16") - or I'm doing it wrong.

However! I decided to give my freehand a try! LOL!

I just stayed super light on the pressure (almost no pressure) - and went through the stones. I never felt a burr but I got the blade blazing sharp. And my edge looks cleaner than the factory edge.

I'm so happy that I can use these hones freehand because I know that is where all Blade Junkies end up.

I am a medium level junkie and heading for the depths!

Eric
 
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