Sharpmaker diamond rods are AWESOME!!

Surfingringo

Surfingringo

Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
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I got the diamond rods today and holy moly! My knives are at a whole new level of laser beam, hair splitting sharpness. I re profiled both my Millie in s30v and my pm2 in cts 204p at 30 degrees and then put a super light micro bevel at 40 degrees. They are both now as sharp as any knife I have ever owned. I used to profile freehand with dmt and then micro bevel with the sm. I guess the more exact bevel I get with the sm diamond rods enables me to get the edges just that little bit closer to perfection.

It was especially noticeable with the 204p. This steel has always left me frustrated. I could get it shaving sharp, but could never really get it tree topping silly sharp. Well, it is now. If anyone is on the fence about these I would say definitely go for it. And one more thing. I have heard many say that the sm diamond rods are still not aggressive enough for re profiling, but that was not my experience. Slow, light and steady, it took about 15-20 minutes per knife. No biggie. Results are extraordinary.
 
Sharpening new here, when you say reprofile, do you just mean getting the factory angle back?
 
I have to agree with you. Makes sharpening much more efficient.

Jalcon, reprofiling is essentially changing the angle of the bevel or edge. Some folks like more acute angles, others slightly more obtuse. The Sharpmaker diamond rods speed this process up greatly, compared to the standard medium stones that come with it.
 
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I have a pair of these coming to me because I started to get fed up trying to reprofile kitchen knives and such with the medium stones. Most of the knives I've been given to sharpen look like they have NEVER been sharpened since the day they were purchased many moons ago. The final straw was when I went to sharpen my BM 943 and realized the secondary bevel was wider than 30 degrees and all I was hitting was shoulder. Trying to shave down the bevel on S30V with the medium stones was going to take much too long for my patience.

Out of curiosity, how fine of a grit did you take the secondary bevel and the micro-bevel for your Millie and PM2? I've found success getting my PM2 and Sage very sharp by getting them sharp enough to cut phone paper easily with the medium stones then going lightly on the fine stones until they are shaving hair very easily. However, I've read some people say that they stop at the medium stones and that is all you need for S30V and going to the fine stones will actually diminish the sharpness of your edge.
 
benchwarmer380 said:
I have to agree with you. Makes sharpening much more efficient.

Jalcon, reprofiling is essentially changing the angle of the bevel or edge. Some folks like more acute angles, others slightly more obtuse. The Sharpmaker diamond rods speed this process up greatly, compared to the standard medium stones that come with it.
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Isn't the sharpmaker designed to only put a 30 or 40 degree edge on anyway though? Doesn't spyderco come in at around 35?
 
I just got the ultra fine stones last weekend and am tempted by the diamonds....this isn't going to help... ;) :D
 
rpn said:
I just got the ultra fine stones last weekend and am tempted by the diamonds....this isn't going to help... ;) :D
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No, it's definitely not going to help listening to my experience, cuz these things are an absolute game changer to me. Like I said, I took a cts 204p pm2 that had frustrated me for months to the point that I was trying to sell it, and within 10 minutes it was whittling hairs. I think getting that extra level of precision on the primary bevel and getting a near perfect apex change the final results more than how high a grit I finish with. See? Told u I wasn't going to help. ;)
 
You convinced me - ordered... :)

I normally reprofile on the Edge Pro, and maintain using the Sharpmaker. But setting up the EP can be a bit of a chore, and I much prefer the quick touchups with the SM.

I sometimes feel the brown stones cut too slowly on the high carbide steels, especially when you reset/remove the damaged edge and just want to apex again. When running out of patience, I find the temptation is then to use too much force on the brown stones, which is not a good idea for future edge retention...

For that reason it makes sense to me to use diamonds with light force on the supersteels for quick maintenance. Will have to see how this works.
 
The diamond rods are truly a game changer. I totally agree. They make these new "super steels" far more manageable. Best money I have spent since I bought my Sharpmaker 20 years ago.
 
benchwarmer380 said:
I have to agree with you. Makes sharpening much more efficient.

Jalcon, reprofiling is essentially changing the angle of the bevel or edge. Some folks like more acute angles, others slightly more obtuse. The Sharpmaker diamond rods speed this process up greatly, compared to the standard medium stones that come with it.
Click to expand...

Isn't the sharpmaker designed to only put a 30 or 40 degree edge on anyway though? Doesn't spyderco come in at around 35?
Click to expand...

?????
 
Most of the spydercos I've bought came around 30 degrees I would guess. So sure, you can micro bevel the factory grind until the 40 deg micro bevel starts taking over and becoming the primary bevel. Then you need to re profile to get the primary set back to around 30. I have been doing that freehand on diamond stones, and apparently, my bevels and apex that I was getting freehand lacked some perfection because there is an obvious difference in what I am able to do with the diamond rods on the sm. To me, it's kind of like some middle ground in between pure freehand and something like an edge pro. I don't know. What I do know for sure is that every knife I own now has an atom splitter edge that surpasses what I was getting with freehand diamond stones and the regular sm rods. YMMV.
 
So with the sharpmaker, do you always use the 40 degree slots? How many times do you usually sharpen before you have to "reprofile" back to the 30 degrees?
 
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Jalcon, adding my two cents I'll say that if you use a bright light and a good hand lens you can see what is happening to the bevels as you sharpen them.
Once you aren't guessing about what you're doing to the knife edge then you can make an informed judgement about how much sharpening your knife needs.
 
I had a similar situation as you Surfinggringo. I quit carrying my Caly 3.5 ZDP-189 for a couple of months because I couldn't keep that sharpness that I was used to with my brown SM stones. I then bought the diamond rods and worked the ZDP over good and started carrying the Caly again. Every one that has the Sharpmaker should have a set of the diamond rods. I love them.

About a month ago it got to where the diamond rods weren't keeping up as well(or my standards have increased). I had purchased a DMT 8xxcoarse stone for another project and finally talked myself into re-profiling the Caly 3.5 to 30 degrees with the DMT stone. Wow, raising a burr on ZDP 189 with the DMT 8xx was a breeze and the knife's sharpness is back to putting a grin on my face.

Wait till you get your hands on a DMT 8xxc plate. You will be doing back flips.
 
I've had the diamond rods for a few months already and they are nice, when new!
They've already lost their aggressive cutting power though.
You need to realize that the diamond dust eventually comes out of the substrate and cutting power is reduced.
Kinda depressing seeing how expensive they are. But I knew this before I bought them.
Spyderco should sell a reconditioning kit for the rods: extra diamond dust, and a bonding cement.
Or, sell a really low grit rod that doesn't depend on diamond dust.
Lenny
 
I have heard from several on here that the rods lose some of their initial "bite" almost immediately, but after that continue to function properly for years as long as you don't get heavy handed with them. I actually read one of Sals comments recently about that phenomenon. According to him, the loss of bite is not due to diamonds coming unglued, but rather to them losing the most jagged edges in the first few sharpenings before achieving a more stable shape. I think that was what he said more or less, but don't quote me as I might have read or remembered it wrong.

Time will tell. I'll keep using em and give my opinion after a few months.
 
Surfingringo said:
I have heard from several on here that the rods lose some of their initial "bite" almost immediately, but after that continue to function properly for years as long as you don't get heavy handed with them.
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This is my experience on my SM diamond rods and the DMT stones, although I have only had my SM diamonds for about six months.

Also, when I am trying to remove alot of steel with my SM diamond rods, it is well worth the effort to diligently keep them clean.
 
Surfingringo said:
Btw, how are you supposed to clean the diamond rods? Same as the regular ones??
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I use comet and a stiff bristled brush. I really don't spend a lot of time cleaning them. Just a quick scrub and rinse. I can tell the difference immediately when I use them after cleaning them. I've read that windex works.
 
I picked up the MoldMaster 240 and 320 grits stones to clamp/rubberband to the sharpmaker rods but havent tried them yet! :) I heard that these will work very good too and if I ever get to use my knive(s) enough to dull them, then I will give them a try! LOL
 
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