Do the diamond stones do a good job when trying to reprofile? Do they work fairly quick? I'm trying to get the convex edge off my S35VN Chris Reeve inkosi insingo. I have a sharp maker and don't want to invest in an edge pro if I don't have to.
The sharpmaker diamonds will do an excellent job, if you do your part. As for working fairly quick... that's relative. Compared to the ceramic sharpmaker stones, they're blazing fast. Compared to certain other sharpening methods, probably not.
If the edge grind on your CR Insingo is already relatively thin behind the edge, diamond or cbn rods might at least make the job manageable. I used a similar V-crock compact 'Field Sharpener' setup from A.G. Russell with it's included diamond rods (600-grit or so), to thin the edge on my large Sebenza in S30V. Because the blade was already a pretty nicely thin grind behind the bevel shoulders, it didn't take a horrendously long time to reduce the edge angle a bit - maybe 45 minutes or so. The (round) diamond rods on my setup are pretty small too, at slightly less than 3.5" working length. Even so, the diamond did make a substantial difference as compared to trying the same job with only ceramic rods, which would take many, many hours at least.
So with the rods, I can reprofile the knife as I would use the sharpener like usual? Keeping the knife perfectly up and down against three stone from heel to tip? I thought I read somewhere that you're supposed to roll the knife even you get to the belly of the blade, or is that with the factory edge convex?
'Rolling' the blade is all about keeping the bevel flush to the rod, through the belly towards the tip. To make sure you're doing it right, darken the bevels with a Sharpie before starting. Then watch for where the ink is being removed along the full bevel length. At first try, most will not roll the blade quite enough toward the tip, so the ink removed will be above the edge or along the shoulders of the bevel. You'll quickly get a sense of how to orient the blade on the SM for each pass, by watching where the ink is coming off. This will also tell you if your existing edge on the blade is within the angle limitations of the SM. If the original edge is wider than 40° inclusive (20° per side), you'll notice the ink is only being removed behind the edge or along the shoulders of the bevels when you're holding the blade perfectly vertically.
I believe I already do that, I've been sharpening on a sharp maker at least 16 years. I guess it's second nature. I've never owned nor sharpened a convex edge. My sebenza was a pain
My experience with the diamond rods was a good one in the sense that they saved me time in comparison to simply using the standard Coarse that the Sharp maker comes with.
I’ve used the stones free hand (stone in right, Blade in left) with good results when sharpening large blades. It’s the most used kit I own.
