Very disappointed with Fallkniven DC4 sharpening stone

retzius

retzius

Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
1,102
:grumpy:

I purchased the DC4 stone as a portable sharpener to take along with my Fallkniven F1 and I must say it is terrible. Sucks. Very poor product from such a reputable company.

Here is the bad:

1. The ceramic side is very bumpy and not smooth at all.
2. The diamond side is so rough it is for reprofiling or removing chips only.
3. The glue they use to hold the two sides together is pathetic. It literally fell apart in my hands after 5 minutes of use.

The good:

1. The pouch is nice...

My fixes to make it workable:

1. Use the diamond side to smooth out the ceramic side to make it usable.
2. Use 2 part epoxy to put it back together.

Overall I was very disappointed. :thumbdn:
 
Yeah , when you first get them they aren't perfectly smooth , you just have to use them and they are fine. (Like most diamond hones)
Maybe puta a finer edge on a course blade like a machete or something before you use on your finer blades. The Ceramic saphire side is finer than the diamond. The glue on mine is fine. I heard from other uses not to submerse in water as the glue used is water soluble ?
I like mine a lot.
 
Is this meant as a survival type? If so it may be that you want a more rough sharpening stone.

Coming unglued though is not good. I had a spyderco two sided sharpener that came apart. Maybe epoxy doesnt work well on these types of things?
 
The glue is very poor. It's water soluble. Once fixed like you stated , it's one of the better field sharpeners going. I lapped the ceramic side smooth on a diamond plate ( there's slight machining marks) and got mixed results. I actually found the ones I left with the saw marks polished better. YMMV.

I used marine grade 2 part epoxy as well as cyanoacrylate(super-glue) to fix mine. The epoxy gives you time to line it up. The super glue is pretty much instant. I've never had a problem since.
I have high confidence in these stones or I wouldn't have bought 7 of them ! ;)
 
Sorry to hear you have been so disappointed.

I have a second hand DC4 and love it. It hasn't fallen apart for either me or for the original owner, and while I have heard of the problem, I don't think it would worry me too much as it seems simple enough to fix. I will also grant that the diamond on the new ones is a bit coarse, but the ceramic is nice and the diamond does a good quick job of taking out rolls and dinks without the problem of catching the tip in a hole, as can happen on some other diamond hones. I think I find the ceramic side easier to use than the extra fine DMT which has been my field hone up till now. The ceramic is machined flat, rather than moulded. The Spyderco hones have a smoother surface finish, but are not really flat. I thought that I would have a problem with the machine ridges on the DC4, but so far they haven't seemed to impede the production of a razor edge and it is nice to know that the stone will remove metal across the whole width, not just along high stripes.

Of course, I don't know how much you had to pay for yours. That could be a big factor. The DMT hones are very expensive here, about $80 for a double sided Diafold, whereas the DC4 sells for about a third of that price.
 
From Fällkniven's website:

Upon delivery, your new DC whetstone will appear very coarse. This coarseness will disappear when the tool is put to use.
Click to expand...

That said I have two DC4's (1 silverish diamond and 1 goldish diamond). The newer goldish version seems a bit less well put together than the older silverish one. I just assumed I received an ugly one. Mine hasn't come apart though and I've used it a bit.
 
When yours falls apart - the back of mine was very smooth so I roughed it up then used super glue .End of problem
 
I had the exact same problem. First one I ordered, the ceramic side was covered in deep scratches and the edges were chipped to hell. I sent it back, and the ceramic side on the next one was even worse. It was covered in little pimple-shaped lumps and chunks...totally useless for sharpening. The ceramic side and the diamond side came apart right away, and I threw the ceramic chunk out altogether. The diamond side is quite nice, imho, and great for field use, but a friggin' coffee mug makes a better sharpening surface than the ceramic bit. :barf:

One messed up stone is probably a fluke, sure, but two is just piss-poor manufacturing. :thumbdn:
 
I have the smaller DC3 and it is fine. Never came apart and the ceramic side will put a near tree topping razor Sharp edge if I don't let the knife get too dull. I don't use the diamond side as I haven't needed it but I'm sure I could fix some edge damage with it. Would probably need a grit in between it and the ceramic side unless it smoothes out a lot once it breaks in. I got mine for less than 10 bucks and I'm happy with it as a field sharpener.
 
Well my experience wasn't as extreme, the ceramic side on mine does too have annoying pimples. Do these work away?

Dorito Monk said:
I had the exact same problem. First one I ordered, the ceramic side was covered in deep scratches and the edges were chipped to hell. I sent it back, and the ceramic side on the next one was even worse. It was covered in little pimple-shaped lumps and chunks...totally useless for sharpening. The ceramic side and the diamond side came apart right away, and I threw the ceramic chunk out altogether. The diamond side is quite nice, imho, and great for field use, but a friggin' coffee mug makes a better sharpening surface than the ceramic bit. :barf:

One messed up stone is probably a fluke, sure, but two is just piss-poor manufacturing. :thumbdn:
Click to expand...
 
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