what benchstone do you use?

You should go to the maintenance, tinkering, embellishment area of the forum and look/ask around thats where most of the sharpening talk happens. Personally I use a brown ceramic triangular gatco pocket hone (medium grit) 90% of the time, and if its really bad the fine diamond file on my leatherman, then the brown ceramic, then a ultrafine spyderco triangular ceramic hone.

Will sit down with a generic hard and soft Arkansas stone set at times too.
 
in the market for a medium benchstone to do the brunt of my sharpening, what do you use brand wise there are so many to choose from and I went the cheap route last time and paid dearly in the long run.
 
Waterstones are a excellent way to sharpen but if you buy cheap, like king stones, you will find the same problems. Look at chefsknivestogo they have a nice selection to pick from.
 
I mostly use Norton water stones (220 grit, 1000 grit, and 8000 grit) now, but I also like King stones.
 
I have used cheap hardware store oil stones, water stones, ceramics and most recently DMT continuous diamond stones. I am really liking the diamond stones. I rarely pull out any of my other stones anymore. Diamonds make quick work of harder steel.
 
Im always really skeptical of "diamond" stones. Aren't they just dust glue to a hard surface? Do they last long? I bought my last stone off amazon cheap, a smiths combo and the medium stone is ice skating smooth now and takes forever to put an edge back on. So im definetly looking for something better but that will also last
 
clichtenwalner1 said:
Im always really skeptical of "diamond" stones. Aren't they just dust glue to a hard surface? Do they last long? I bought my last stone off amazon cheap, a smiths combo and the medium stone is ice skating smooth now and takes forever to put an edge back on. So im definetly looking for something better but that will also last
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I can't speak for the 'cheap' diamond hones, but the better makers (DMT, Eze-Lap, Lansky, Fallkniven, etc.) do them by embedding the diamond in a nickel plating (which itself is very durable, properly utilized). Not glued. Diamond hones can be worn out faster, if the user is leaning too heavily into sharpening. Not only will excessive pressure rip diamond out of the nickel plating, but it will remove a LOT more metal than necessary from the edge of your blade, and usually is counter-productive (leaves the edge rough & dull). It took me a long while to figure this out, as I used to apply a lot more pressure than necessary. LIGHT pressure is key, in using them.

I thought I'd worn out one of my DMT Dia-Folds (Coarse/Fine) a while back, after I'd used it to flatten a ceramic hone (two, actually). It did remove a good deal of diamond from the nickel, and it 'felt' a lot smoother afterwards. But, surprisingly, it's still very effective. In fact, the finish it leaves on my edges is more uniform now. These things are a lot more durable than most would assume.
 
Many of us use lots of methods and tools to sharpen.

Like many things in life, the tool is of far less importance than the person using it.

That said, the people with skills will insist on well made tools...and regardless of the type, there are various levels of "quality" that generally corresponds to price (not always though).

Ceramics, Diamond plates, Strops loaded with various abrasives, wet/dry sand paper, and conventional "stones" are all viable hand tools....then you have a multitude of power tools (belt sanders, grinding wheels, paper wheels, and others)...add one more facet to this conundrum with jigs and "systems" and you get pretty complicated pretty quickly.

Do some searches, read up and see what appeals to you. Most if not all of the types of sharpening I mentioned above are great in some regards, and possibly limited in others....the difference is you and your preferences. The tools you enjoy using will likely be the ones you become most proficient with.

Personally, I like diamond plates, and diamond loaded strops for what I do...but there are lots of guys getting some great results with a few sheets of wet/dry sandpaper and a piece of glass or a mouse pad. It need not be expensive to work...but when faced with a few examples of the same type of tool, the more expensive one generally is better made (but not always;))
 
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