Question regarding Ceramic Stones....

[chucknduck]

Hey all, quick question. On top of the millions of sharpening items I own, one is the Fallkniven DC521 diamond/ceramic stone. I was curious if any of you have experience with both products: the Fallkniven and the Spyderco Ceramic stones (med, fine, and ul. fine. How would the dc compare to the 3 different stones? All three of them.. Thanks in advance!

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Comparing to my own DC4 hone, which actually was the coarsest ceramic I'd seen when it was NEW (~5 years ago), the Spyderco medium would be less aggressive (finer) in performance to the DC4's ceramic, as it came on my hone. I've since burnished and smoothed out my DC4's ceramic side a bit, and it's not near as coarse as before, maybe even slightly less aggressive than Spyderco's stock medium ceramic.

I've read here on the forum about a lot of variability in Fallkniven's ceramic surface finish, depending on when they were purchased and/or the individual's own frame of reference when comparing it to Spyderco or others. It may be difficult to pin down how they actually compare today without actually trying them all personally, depending on what Fallkniven has or hasn't changed about their process for it.


David

 

[chucknduck]

Thats interesting that your dc4 ceramic was more coarse than even the Spyderco medium ceramic AND the variability with them. I guess thats why I was curious to begin with. My dc521 seems to be a very fine variation. I read on Fallkniven's site that the ceramic portion was in the 1 micron area but that seems pretty fine. That would put it in the 16,000 range. The ceramic portion of my stone tends to leave a very nice polish and an incredible edge, but I doubt it is in the 1 micron range. What I am looking for is a to make a transition from a DMT duosharp 1200 diamond to the ceramic side of the Fallkniven dc521. I have thought about the dmt medium extra fine (in 4000 grit) but I have heard of many issues in grit consistency.

Thanks all

 

[Llasi]

I have the two stones and in my opinon the ceramics Falkniven is softer than the Spyderco Medium.
In addition, it becomes finer with use.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Thats interesting that your dc4 ceramic was more coarse than even the Spyderco medium ceramic AND the variability with them. I guess thats why I was curious to begin with. My dc521 seems to be a very fine variation. I read on Fallkniven's site that the ceramic portion was in the 1 micron area but that seems pretty fine. That would put it in the 16,000 range. The ceramic portion of my stone tends to leave a very nice polish and an incredible edge, but I doubt it is in the 1 micron range. What I am looking for is a to make a transition from a DMT duosharp 1200 diamond to the ceramic side of the Fallkniven dc521. I have thought about the dmt medium extra fine (in 4000 grit) but I have heard of many issues in grit consistency.

Thanks all

You might not see much benefit from that transition, but it never hurts to experiment to see exactly what it'll do. If looking to refine the edge finish further after the DMT EF, I'd either go to the DMT EEF (8000/3µ) or use a hard strop (like wood) with diamond compound in the 3-1µ range. DMT's Dia-Paste works very well at 3µ, in bringing up a very high polish after the EF and/or the EEF. I tend to favor diamond over ceramic for that sort of refining, as it'll be less prone to burring issues, which ceramics can do if not very careful with use of pressure. More so as the edge becomes thinner with refinement.


David