Which Diamond Stone is better, KME, EZE Lap, DMT. Etc ?

L

LeatherSnake

Joined
Aug 4, 2016
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I have a couple KME diamond plates but they kinda wear out easily, so does Eze Lap. I never had a DMT diamond plate so any opinions which diamond stone is better?
 
No expert here, but I have both Ese Lap and DMT, primarily an assortment of DMT bench stones (plates) in various grits. I pretty much ruined the first one I purchased due to pressing to hard sharpening knives. I replaced the first DMT with the two grit sizes. People say that the DMT's are better.
 
No expert here either but I have the DMT 6" Dia sharp kit. The DMT are definitely a step up from Smith and Lanksy diamond stones but I have no experience with KME or Eze lap. I've done a lot of research on sharpening and I seem to keep going around in circles on what people recommend for sharpening.

You might want to post in this sub forum and try the search function in the upper right corner.
https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/maintenance-tinkering-embellishment.794/

I would add that depending on what blade steels you have in your knives, you might not even need diamond stones. I got mine as a gift and I can probably get away w/o them. S30V is my top steel. I don't have the latest and greatest powder steel in my blades. Most are Vg10 and 154cm actually. Good luck on chasing the unicorn!
 
DMT are very high quality. You can usually gauge quality by price for diamond sharpening plates (at least that's the way it used to be).
DMT uses monocrystalline diamonds and the cheap ones use polycrystalline. I'm pretty sure DMT uses a higher quality nickel bond as well.
 
They all wear with use, and will wear faster if excessive pressure is used (you don't need much pressure at all with diamonds).

I've used DMT, EZE Lap, Ultrasharp, Atoma, and no-name Chinese brands. DMT is still my first choice and what I'd recommend, with Ultrasharp a close second. But even the cheap no-name brands work pretty well too. If you search 'sk-11 diamond' at a certain big river place, you'll find a number of inexpensive combination diamond plates that work surprisingly well, if trying to economize.
 
I've been using the same 4 inch DMT pocket stone and Arkansas Hard pocket stone for the last 33+ years. Yesterday evening was the last time I used them. As an aside I've always used a couple of drops of light machine oil or mineral oil on the DMT.
 
I have a set of three large DMT bench plates and use them mostly for fixed blades. Very pleased with them.
 
I have a lot of DMT stuff, but I much prefer the bonded Diamond Venev “stones”. The Diamond grit in the Venevs is part of the matrix rather applied as a surface coating. They make 6 grits in 3 3”X8” “stones”.View attachment 822961
 
I've used DMT, EZE Lap, Smith's diamond stones. DMT has been the longest lasting, with one Diafold lasting 20 years before the handle snapped on me. I know DMT uses a monochrystalline diamond structure, as opposed to polychrystalline. Poly has more sides and will supposedly break down faster, especially if push too hard on the stone.

monopoly_poly_diagram.jpg
 
I've used venev diamond stones but they're a little too smooth, I've got 60 FPS grit but they won't cut as much as coated diamond stones.
 
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