Polished edges

[ssblood]

I use the magna-guide too. It has a little bit of a learning curve. Learning to adjust the clamp screw in all the way has helped me alot. I loosen the gold screw just enough to take the bow out when I do this. For some reason with the dia-folds my rod generally lays on the bottom side of the hole, it doesn't move around. I guess it's me trying to maintain such a light touch. I have the C, F, XF and XXF and will be picking up the XC on Friday. The very first time I ever used it I reprofiled a small kershaw I bought. The first time I've cut myself in a long time too. I was just finishing on the XF and went to wipe the rest of the sharpie off the blade with some alcohol and a rag. Slice, never even felt it but it went a 1/4" into my thumb. It was scary sharp... These things work awesome if you take your time. I agree with poster above, I wanted a wicked edge because I thought it would be a cure-all. Then I learned what a light touch really means, I finally understand my sharpmaker and can sharpen on it. And the diafolds, I couldn't justify a WE or EP unless I had money to throw away IMO.

 

[cziv]

I use the magna-guide too. It has a little bit of a learning curve. Learning to adjust the clamp screw in all the way has helped me alot. I loosen the gold screw just enough to take the bow out when I do this. For some reason with the dia-folds my rod generally lays on the bottom side of the hole, it doesn't move around. I guess it's me trying to maintain such a light touch. I have the C, F, XF and XXF and will be picking up the XC on Friday. The very first time I ever used it I reprofiled a small kershaw I bought. The first time I've cut myself in a long time too. I was just finishing on the XF and went to wipe the rest of the sharpie off the blade with some alcohol and a rag. Slice, never even felt it but it went a 1/4" into my thumb. It was scary sharp... These things work awesome if you take your time. I agree with poster above, I wanted a wicked edge because I thought it would be a cure-all. Then I learned what a light touch really means, I finally understand my sharpmaker and can sharpen on it. And the diafolds, I couldn't justify a WE or EP unless I had money to throw away IMO.

I cut my finger sharpening my XM-18 and doing the same thing with a wash cloth. Wiping blade off to examine it (I use them with water) and slice right through the cloth and just got a small bite. You're going to love having the x-coarse diafold, it makes the whole process so much faster when raising that 1st burr.

Make sure you buy the x-coarse & coarse diafold and not just the x-coarse or you'll get one with one side that's empty and the beginnings of all your sharpening/profiling will be in vain, as the angle will be different without the coarse plate on that empty side.

It's worth paying the few extra bucks so that your angles stay the same from x-coarse all the way through. You may know this already but I didn't and had to buy another dual sided x-coarse.

 

[ssblood]

I didn't know this! NGK only has the XC-C though so I was going to have to buy that anyway but this is a good piece of advice. I could have made a bad mistake and be slamming my head into the wall.

 

[cziv]

I didn't know this! NGK only has the XC-C though so I was going to have to buy that anyway but this is a good piece of advice. I could have made a bad mistake and be slamming my head into the wall.

Only a $19 plus shipping mistake for me. I realized I made a boo boo right away and tired shimming it to the right height but after a lot of strugling with it, thought "hey, get the right tool dummy."