Sharpening on the go

shinyedges

shinyedges

Unfaltering Love & Undeviating Will
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I've been wanting to sharpen where ever I am, I just purchased the dmt diafold course/fine and the extra fine/extra extra fine. What is the consensus as to what this setup is capable of?

I have a loaded strop I'll keep with the diafolds.

I'd like to be able to remove minor dings and bring back to easy shaving.. anything else I should add?
 
Also, how long will the dmt diafolds last? A little concerned the diamonds will fall out or wear out fast.
 
[edit] I don't think i read the OP very well, so my response here is a bit off the wall. Oh, well... :confused:

I am in no way a sharpening expert, but I'll offer a couple of simple solutions that I have found that are good enough for me. Keep in mind that I use these on traditionals and not on anything with "fancy" steels.

Most compact is a Victorinox pocket sharpener and a Vic or Opinel mini-steel. The pocket sharpener is about the size of a fat pen with a pocket clip. The barrel slides off to reveal a ceramic rod (no idea as to the grit). (The cap pulls off to reveal a ceramic pull-through sharpener, but I don't use that.) The rod will easily raise a burr on Tru-sharp, CV, 420HC, etc., and the mini-steel does a nice job of touch-up and burr removal.

A bit more bulky setup is a pair of 1" x 4" EZ-LAP diamond stones in 600 and 1200 grip, a 4" ultra-fine ceramic rod, and a mini-steel.

After years (decades!) of "doing it wrong" my technique is definitely improving thanks to doing a lot of reading here on BF.
 
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I had a DMT diafold that I bought back in the early to mid 90s. I even carried it my full term in the Army. One of the folding handles snapped on me just a few years ago. So that's about 20 years of use for that one diafold. I'd say I definitely got my money's worth and then some. There's no telling how many hundreds of knives I had sharpened with that thing. Even the handle snapped, the stone itself was still good to go. Not quite coarse/fine anymore, but more like fine/extra fine after all the years of sharpening. I ended up epoxying the stones to tooling board and I still use it to this day....

wPv1sKz.jpg

E03NB7y.jpg
 
91bravo said:
I had a DMT diafold that I bought back in the early to mid 90s. I even carried it my full term in the Army. One of the folding handles snapped on me just a few years ago. So that's about 20 years of use for that one diafold. I'd say I definitely got my money's worth and then some. There's no telling how many hundreds of knives I had sharpened with that thing. Even the handle snapped, the stone itself was still good to go. Not quite coarse/fine anymore, but more like fine/extra fine after all the years of sharpening. I ended up epoxying the stones to tooling board and I still use it to this day....

wPv1sKz.jpg

E03NB7y.jpg
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That helps put my mind at rest about longevity. I don't know why I was worried about it. Meh.

Thanks for the info!
 
There's 2 diamond plates always in my wallet, eze-lap fine and coarse credit card size. The fine is at least 20 years old and has seen a lot of use on high % carbide blades, it's still in good shape. The coarse was added a several years ago to address more severe edge damage quicker, and to take some of the load off the fine plate. I find there's a wide variety of refinement I can get with just these.

As said, don't get too rough with them and they should last a life time.
 
So light pressure is best for the dmt stones, good to know.
 
They will seem a bit course with inconsistent grit at first, but will settle down with some use.
Most of my knives are finished on the red, around 600 grit some more courses, and carving knives get a much much finer polishing.

So I'd say your setup is capable of everything you could need, unless you like experimenting with tons of different stones for fun. But for function, you're all set.
 
Justin.P said:
They will seem a bit course with inconsistent grit at first, but will settle down with some use.
Most of my knives are finished on the red, around 600 grit some more courses, and carving knives get a much much finer polishing.

So I'd say your setup is capable of everything you could need, unless you like experimenting with tons of different stones for fun. But for function, you're all set.
Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks for chiming in.
 
Justin.P said:
They will seem a bit course with inconsistent grit at first, but will settle down with some use.
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Yep, I see posts that complain of diamond being much coarser than they expected, and "catchy" when trying to sharpen. I suspect it's because the plate hasn't settled to its normal even surface.
I also see posts that say they don't cut anything like new, wore plates out real fast. I suspect some of these are just experiencing the plate settling in to its normal surface.

I don't know about dmt's, but eze-laps are for sure like this.
 
DC3 it disappears in yer pocket and works
Sharpening on the go right ,
 
91bravo said:
... Don't use too much pressure on the stone and they will last you a long long time...
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This is the key with diamonds. Let the stones do the work. You just guide the blade. Don't try to "help" the stones cut faster by using a lot of pressure. That's what rips them out. What you have should be fine for on-the-go sharpening and light repair work. That's actually what I keep in my car bag, along with a small bare kangaroo leather strop in the console for meditation and relaxation while my wife is shopping :D.
 
You should be fine. I use my DC4 stone and a small piece of loaded leather to strop. Can easily get back to shaving sharp or ding repair in the field expediently.
 
shinyedges shinyedges , the DMT folding sharpeners are a good choice. Obviously there are a million small sharpeners out there, a lot of them would work. Of all the ones I've used, my current favorites narrow down to 3 options: the DMT folding sharpeners that you have, the Arctic Fox dual-grit (240/400) field stone, and the Spyderco DoubleStuff 2 (yes I know, I posted publicly here that this one has significant limitations--and it does--but I bought one with an open mind, tested it, and it changed my mind to being more positive about it :) ).

Here's a thread where I posted some side-by-side comments, and pics, about all 3 of these sharpeners just mentioned:
https://bladeforums.com/threads/new-spyderco-double-stuff-2-is-out.1526435/page-3#post-17626152

Here's a recent thread where I asked folks to weigh in with their favorite multi-grit field sharpener, may be interesting to you:
https://bladeforums.com/threads/whats-the-best-2-grit-field-sharpener.1521905/

All things considered, here's my take on 3 sharpeners I listed for "sharpening on the go":
  • Favorite one to actually USE (gives good feedback, easy to hold onto, easy to get a good sharpening stroke due to the size, versatile because of the 2 grits and can do a lot of sharpening tasks including edge repair and profiling): Arctic Fox field stone. The downsides if any: it's larger/heavier than the other options, and it does not do as well with super steel blades although I found I could put a sharp, but not optimal, edge on S30v blades with it.
  • Favorite one in terms of what is most versatile, can handle all steels and all sharpening tasks: the DMT diafolds. As mentioned in one of the other threads, I prefer carrying 2 of the diafolds when backpacking or camping: the extra-coarse/coarse one, and the fine/extra-fine one. This gives me 4 total grits and I can sharpen any steel and do edge repair on dinged chopper blades, whatever I need. I find the extra-coarse grit was necessary for me for edge repairs as I often get good-sized dings in chopper blades, and the coarse grit is too slow for a quick edge repair. Also, the combined size/weight of these 2 sharpeners together is still less than the AF stone, so they are nice on the portability aspect. Downside: they are a bit spendy, also, the surface area of these sharpeners is VERY small as noted in my above post, so they less efficient and slightly harder to use for sharpening than the AF field stone. Obviously, the trade-off is between usability, and portability.
  • Favorite one in terms of most portable: the Spydie Double Stuff 2. Definitely the most compact, also the hardest to hold and use, of these 3 options. Again, the trade-off between portability and usability. Also, the DS2 has the well known grit limitation, they only give you a 400 mesh CBN (I'd want something coarser, say 220-ish), and then for the finer grit, they give you a fine ceramic. For field sharpening, I'd simply prefer a finer CBN grit. If they would produce a new variant model of the DS2, say with both sides CBN and grits of say 240/600 or higher, that would hit it out of the park. Even so, the existing one works pretty darn well for a super light field sharpener that can handle any type of steel.
All things considered, if I was limited to only one of these sharpening options (which I never am, thankfully :)), I'd probably stick with the DMT folding, both the XC/C and the F/EF. They are the best overall balance of portability, usability, and versatility.
 
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maximus83 said:
shinyedges shinyedges , the DMT folding sharpeners are a good choice. Obviously there are a million small sharpeners out there, a lot of them would work. Of all the ones I've used, my current favorites narrow down to 3 options: the DMT folding sharpeners that you have, the Arctic Fox dual-grit (240/400) field stone, and the Spyderco DoubleStuff 2 (yes I know, I posted publicly here that this one has significant limitations--and it does--but I bought one with an open mind, tested it, and it changed my mind to being more positive about it :) ).

Here's a thread where I posted some side-by-side comments, and pics, about all 3 of these sharpeners just mentioned:
https://bladeforums.com/threads/new-spyderco-double-stuff-2-is-out.1526435/page-3#post-17626152

Here's a recent thread where I asked folks to weigh in with their favorite multi-grit field sharpener, may be interesting to you:
https://bladeforums.com/threads/whats-the-best-2-grit-field-sharpener.1521905/

All things considered, here's my take on 3 sharpeners I listed for "sharpening on the go":
  • Favorite one to actually USE (gives good feedback, easy to hold onto, easy to get a good sharpening stroke due to the size, versatile because of the 2 grits and can do a lot of sharpening tasks including edge repair and profiling): Arctic Fox field stone. The downsides if any: it's larger/heavier than the other options, and it does not do as well with super steel blades although I found I could put a sharp, but not optimal, edge on S30v blades with it.
  • Favorite one in terms of what is most versatile, can handle all steels and all sharpening tasks: the DMT diafolds. As mentioned in one of the other threads, I prefer carrying 2 of the diafolds when backpacking or camping: the extra-coarse/coarse one, and the fine/extra-fine one. This gives me 4 total grits and I can sharpen any steel and do edge repair on dinged chopper blades, whatever I need. I find the extra-coarse grit was necessary for me for edge repairs as I often get good-sized dings in chopper blades when, and the coarse grit is too slow for a quick edge repair. Also, the combined size/weight of these 2 sharpeners together is still less than the AF stone, so they are nice on the portability aspect. Downside: they are a bit spendy, also, the surface area of these sharpeners is VERY small as noted in my above post, so they less efficient and slightly harder to use for sharpening than the AF field stone. Obviously, the trade-off is between usability, and portability.
  • Favorite one in terms of most portable: the Spydie Double Stuff 2. Definitely the most compact, and also the hardest to hold and use, of these 3 options. Again, the trade-off between portability and usability. Also, the DS2 has the well know grit limitation, they only give you a 400 mesh CBN (I'd want something coarser, say 220-ish), and then for the finer grit, they give you a fine ceramic. For field sharpening, I'd simply prefer a finer CBN grit. If they would produce a new variant model of the DS2, say with both sides CBN and grits of say 240/600 or higher, that would hit it out of the park. Even so, the existing one works pretty darn well for a super light field sharpener that can handle any type of steel.
All things considered, if I was limited to only one of these sharpening options (which I am never am, thankfully :)), I'd probably stick with the DMT folding, both the XC/C and the F/EF. They are the best overall balance of portability, usability, and versatility.
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Thank for the well thought out reply! I received the dmt diafolds on Wednesday, I haven't try ed them yet but I'm looking forward to it. I went with the course/fine extra fine/ extra extra fine I believe. This is mostly for folders that don't get major damage.

I will report back after a few good uses!
 
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