Sharpener Advice for a Newbie

T

tomasw1

Joined
Sep 17, 2003
Messages
3
Hello all, I've been reading your post for a while now and really enjoy all of the info in this forum. I was hoping you can help me out. I just ordered an Ontario RAT7 D2 and wanted to pick up a sharpener to possible keep in the sheath's pouch. I was considering one of the small DMTs in Fine grit. Please let me know what you think. This knife will be my primary outdoors knife (Camping, Fishing, Hunting)Thanks.
 
Personally, I cannot sharpen very well on anything smaller than a six inch stone. But since you are new, maybe freehand sharpening isn't the best method. There are lots of gajets (sp?) to make sharpening easier, V-sticks, lansky-type holders, etc. I don't know, I prefer freehand, but lots of people here like the sharpmaker which is a V-stick style. If you do decide to learn frehand sharpening I sugest at least a six inch, but even better an eight or ten inch stone. Even if you have to downgrade from diamond to an arkansaw stone.
 
I'm sorry, I misread your post. For something that will fit into the small pocket, yes, DMT makes very good diamond stones. Fine grit would be the best choice also for quick touch-ups "on the road". I once had a DMT stone that lasted me ~4 years before it finally gave up, just remember to never push hard in order to make the stone cut faster. That will really kill a diamond stone.
 
If you buy one, use water, it will help extend the life of the thing. The way they make them is to plate a piece of steel with nickel and imbed the industrial diamond powder in the nickel.

Heed the above advice if you go with a DMT or similar, you can actually tear the id's out of the nickel matrix with too much pressure

A good double sided Arkansas stone is better IMHO. The ones from Norton and Dan's are both excellent. It takes time to learn how to use it properly, but they last damn near forever.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I agree with Kohai, an arkansaw stone will last way longer. A small stone for touch-ups will probably outlast you! But I prefer diamonds because it makes sharpening so dang easy it's not even a chore. The difference is especially noticable on a good steel like D2. So it will cost a lot more money and you will have to replace it pretty frequently, but it works better. It really depends on your priorities, if price is an issue then arkansaw wins hands down, if performance is all that matters diamond cant be beat. Also to concider is whether the stone may see some corrosive conditions, I have seen a little rust on my diamond stones on occasion, obviously arkansaw stones do not rust or corrode in any way.
 
The rust you see is steel dust rusting, not the diamond sharpener.

As most Arkansas stones are oilstones, that is why you don't see rusting.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Those little DMTs are great, I've been meaning to get a whole set for a while now. Great choice.
 
Esav, I have seen those, and will probably get a set of them too. Can't every have enough sharpening gear! :)
 
I use a wide variety of DMT products to great effect. I have 8" bench stones in Xfine, Fine and Coarse. A Fine/XFine Diafold. and C, F & XF credit card size.

The bench stones stay at home. The credicards slilp into a homemade cherry wood block, and stay with my field gear, and the Diafold rides with me in a spare ammo pouch.

I also take stroping leather with chromium-oxcide wher ever I go for a final step.

One note: When trying to come up with a block to mount the credit card size stones, I sank a few rare earth magnets into a chunk of cherry. this holds the sharpening plates firm to the wood, and five something to grip. Don't do this! All the metal dust sticks hard and fast to the plate and ruins it in a short while.

In the end, I just fashioned a piece of wood with a few slines to set the plate between.
 
Thanks guys, I picked up a little keychain folding DMT diamond sharpener and it works perfectly.
 
Cool, the DMT's are great for field sharpening. I'd avoid arkansas stones unless you have relatively soft plain carbon steel, they're rather slow cutting, and on some of the more wear resistant steels they'll just burnish the edge rather than remove steel.
 
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