Spyderco Diamond Rods

I have these hones and can't justify the purchase for $60-100. Though they work great to start, they don't handle long term hard use. The diamond layer eventually peels from the stone and the steel tubes rust and pit. I used mine to reprofile several knives before they started to peel in places preventing further use.

Just the facts, no personal bias or opinion.

NJ
 
I love spyderco, but mine wore out in one single reprofile. It was a serious job with S30V, but C'mon, one knife? I'm planning to send them in. I even used light pressure like instructed. Not too impressed for the price.
 
I also have purchased the diamond rods. As far as re-profiling goes I would not recommend them. Sure they remove steel faster than the other stones, but it is still slow as hell. They are easy to clean, just run some water over them or blow them out with compressed air. I have re-profiled a few blades with them, but it takes forever. As far as wearability of the triangles goes, mine have held up fine, just dont' press down too hard.
 
i have some and prefer to wrap the std tods with emory cloth for reprofiling/any heavy sharpening when i need to remove lot of metal, ya can either tape the cloth on or use a rubber band, also ya can vary the grit depending on the job, also a lot cheaper lol, sandpaper will work also,

the diamond rods do work well, are a lot more aggressive than the std rods, but i like the emory cloth better myself.
 
I have a set, used them a couple of times before moving onto the Edgepro for serious reprofiling tasks.
 
I have a set and don't have any problems.

I have used them for serious reprofiling--and the rods are still in great shape.
 
I'd love to buy them, but for the price, can't do it. Instead, I use sandpaper with the rods, freehand with a large DMT field stone, freehand with carborundum stone or I put the DMT up against the stones and use it that way.

I like the sharpmaker, but spyderco really pissed me off when they refused to sell the diamonds as single rods. The sharpmaker, as sold, is essentially useless if you need to reprofile. The two diamond rods cost almost twice as much as the whole sharpmaker set. Since you rarely need to reprofile and you can readily do one side at a time, Spyderco should have done us (and themselves?) a favor and sold them as single rods.
 
I have a set. Jury's still out. I'm not real good at the knife sharpening thing yet. What I can say so far: From personal examination and the big red warning sheet that came with them: They strike me as overly delicate. Then again: I wasn't all that impressed with the diamond stone I bought for the same purpose for my wood-working tools years ago. (I now use that one purely for flattening my waterstones.)

I wouldn't buy them again.

I suspect you'd be better-off with wrapping wet/dry sandpaper around the regular rods. I know wet/dry sandpaper tacked to a sheet of glass was far more effective than a diamond stone for quickly establishing a bevel on my wood-working edges.
 
I used mine to reprofile several knives, including a ZDP Jess Horn flat to the stone. They still have plenty of life in them, but I made sure I wasn't using tons of pressure when I used them. I did end up buying an X coarse DMT benchstone though, it is much better for reprofiling. It cuts many times faster then the Sperdercos, but if you only have a minor job the Spyderco rods will work fine, but they are very pricy.
 
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The diamond Sharpmaker rods act like any and every well-bonded diamond product (meaning, like the ones made by DMT and EZE-Lap). They're very aggressive when brand new, then they slow down a bit (If they seemed to cut at 120 miles per hour when new, they'll seem like they cut at 75-80 miles per hour when broken in), but they stay at that level of speed/aggression for years. If your knife's blade or handle allows for it, put the diamonds in the chisel-sharpening part on the Sharpmaker's base, put the base on a non-skid surface, and use them like a benchstone. When the force of the blade isn't directed into a tiny slot on the Sharpmaker, you can really bare down for fast reprofiling (I didn't think 400 grit could cut that fast).

The EZE-Lap diamonds, when used in the EdgePro do the same thing; cut super fast and aggressive-like when new and then cut merely very fast when broken in, but keep that speed for a real long time. You're probably better off buying spare 120 grit SiC hones from EdgePro and regluing them the stone blank when needed instead of buying a diamond, and also better off knowing that EdgePro's 600 grit stone leaves a better finish than a 1200 grit diamond even when the diamond is broken in.
 
thombrogan said:
The diamond Sharpmaker rods act like any and every well-bonded diamond product (meaning, like the ones made by DMT and EZE-Lap). They're very aggressive when brand new, then they slow down a bit (If they seemed to cut at 120 miles per hour when new, they'll seem like they cut at 75-80 miles per hour when broken in), but they stay at that level of speed/aggression for years. If your knife's blade or handle allows for it, put the diamonds in the chisel-sharpening part on the Sharpmaker's base, put the base on a non-skid surface, and use them like a benchstone. When the force of the blade isn't directed into a tiny slot on the Sharpmaker, you can really bare down for fast reprofiling (I didn't think 400 grit could cut that fast).
Click to expand...

That is how I sharpened my Jess Horn flat to the stone, by using the slots in the back of the base, but 400 grit doesn't work too great on ZDP, at least for me. It took several hours and I ended up convexing to get all the way to the edge. I removed that convexing when I got my DMT X coarse, as it cuts much faster then the sharpmaker diamond rods. Maybe I baby my diamond stones too much, because you seem to get good longevity even when you really put a lot of force into them. I put a decent amount of force into my DMT X coarse, but I don't really try to gorilla press into it for fear of tearing all of the diamonds out. I really need a belt sander for reprofiling, because even reprofiling my Native in S30V on the DMT X coarse wore my ass out. Or, maybe if I see a good sale on the DMT XXcoarse I will get it, but it seems like a cheap belt sander would save me money. On the other hand, I will have to sacrafice some knives to learn what the hell I'm doing on a belt sander, but I do have a decent amount of throwaways.
 
Gunmike1,

What the more expensive D8XX offers over the belt-sander are flatness and coolness and faster cutting grit-for-grit. My experience with the budget sander is that it'll round the profile and if you use the platen, it'll cause more damage to the edge and tip than it will help for leaving a flattened path from the spine to the edge (not truly necessary, but a flatter profile will tend to be thinner and a thinner profile will tend to cut better).

Plus, steel eats sanding belts. The initial $30-40 for the sander and $10-20 for a bunch of belts is less than the $60+ a D8XX costs at tools-for-u, but the D8XX will outlast several dozen belts and can be used to flatten your waterstones, oilstones, and ceramic stones. If maintaining other stones doesn't matter, MtnHawk recommends the Razor Edge Systems Coarse Hone saying it cuts even faster than the D8XX.
 
I bought a set of those diamond rods. I like them. They work well for me and I try to treat them accordingly to the instructions. They are pricey but they were worth it the first time I used them on my Sebenza - damn S30V steel is hard!
 
thombrogan said:
Gunmike1,

What the more expensive D8XX offers over the belt-sander are flatness and coolness and faster cutting grit-for-grit. My experience with the budget sander is that it'll round the profile and if you use the platen, it'll cause more damage to the edge and tip than it will help for leaving a flattened path from the spine to the edge (not truly necessary, but a flatter profile will tend to be thinner and a thinner profile will tend to cut better).

Plus, steel eats sanding belts. The initial $30-40 for the sander and $10-20 for a bunch of belts is less than the $60+ a D8XX costs at tools-for-u, but the D8XX will outlast several dozen belts and can be used to flatten your waterstones, oilstones, and ceramic stones. If maintaining other stones doesn't matter, MtnHawk recommends the Razor Edge Systems Coarse Hone saying it cuts even faster than the D8XX.
Click to expand...

Since I just got some Christmas money I think I will get a D8XX and try it out.
 
pratzert said:
How well do the diamond stones last for the EdgePro ?

Thanks, Tim
Click to expand...
I don't use diamond stones with the EP, just the regular 120 grit stones, they cut fast. I have a 80 grit stone for the EP as well, cuts faster. They work better and much cheaper than diamond. IMO
 
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