Diamond Sharpening Stones

[DarwinStrings]

After your post Lillian I need to make a correction to my post, My "extra coarse" is 220 grit not 120 grit.

A toast to my poor memory, may it help me forget all the stupid thing I have done.

I also bought a 8000 grit DMT in hope of replacing my 6000 water stone but the 8000 DMT does not polish the edge as well as the water stone. I am not sure why as it is supposedly a much finer grit. The 8000 DMT now lives in the kitchen and hones my knives.

Jim

[P Bill]

I might as well weigh in with my system

40 and 60 grit aluminium oxide wheels, for me they cut fast and cool. They get used a lot but sparingly. I never try and hone out a nick.

Bench stones.
Hard Black Arkansas, Soft White Arkansas and a Washita. Coarse ( ? ) and fine ( ? ) manufactured water stones.

Slip stones
Hard Black Arkansas, coarse and fine manufactured water stones.

As near as anyone can tell the HB Arkansas is 1000 - 1200 grit.

I use kero on everything, the waterstones live in a tin of kero.

I learned how to sharpen in 2 days at a trade school in 1976. Plane irons and chisels were the sharpest things we were allowed the 1st semester. honing guides were never even mentioned. Put the bevel flat on the stone, lift slightly, lock your elbows to your side, use your upper body and cover the whole stone. Sometimes I strop with leather but mostly the edge of my bench.

Form that time till now sharpening has become a big deal and it's not really. As Trevor said you should be able to get a good edge quickly.

When I make furniture, the timber being right, my final surface is off the plane.

[P Bill]

I'm not recommending anyone use kero on their waterstones. The ones I have are over 30 years old and are different from the high dollar Japanese ones.

[Clancy]

The Stewmac diamond ones are DMT - they come in the DMT plastic packet.

I use it for both fret levelling, blade re-shaping, blade back flattening and flattening my water stones.
As you can see, it gets a workout in my workshop.
With chisels & blades I use the veritas mkII guide and am even able to manage the large HNT Gordon plane blades on it.

I follow this up with 1200 & 6000 water stones.
For straight sharpening it's straight to the stones.
Dwelled on the strop for a while but it didn't suit me.

Oh, and the guitar widow reckons that if I gave as much attention to her as I do to sharpening my tools,... well I won't repeat the rest of that statement.

[Dominic]

I've tried going from 600 to 1200 as Trevor mentions in his book and just using very light strokes and it works. Its probably easier to get that on a nice water stone but when you factor in flattening your stones its quick on the DMT 1200. You can get a 6000 diamond stone as well if you want superfine
Dom

[blackalex1952]

Can someone post some sort of table or comparison of diamond grits vs Japanese waterstone grits please, maybe even a comparison between sand paper grits and micromesh grits as well? Ross

[Steve.Toscano]

Can someone post some sort of table or comparison of diamond grits vs Japanese waterstone grits please

Compare it to the 'mesh' grits here:
https://www.dmtsharp.com/misc/dmt-chart/?ajax=true

In my micromesh pack it says the comparison grits on a little card (i would check but am away at the moment). From memory they start at equivalent of 1200 grit and go to 15000 grit

[Dave M]

Alan as you might gather there really are many ways to achieve a sharp edge, some requiring a bit more work, and some needing more skill. For instance I always use a honing guide unless the blade is such that it won't go in, since I don't have decades of experience holding a tool at the right angle. I like the repeatability and the accuracy of the angle.

Having tried oil stones and Japanese water stones I have ended up with diamond DMT as people have suggested. It totally avoids the stone dishing problem and cuts quickly. I do occasionally go for a mirror finish on a 6000 grit waterstone but that's only because I don't have a very fine diamond. If you do decide on diamond get the full size ones. You will curse trying to use anything smaller

In answer to the question of grits. The micromesh versus other systems are listed here:

http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/conversion.htm

So when I am polishing a nitro finish I go up to P1200 in wet and dry then move to Micromesh 1800 then through pretty much all the finer grits and then do not need to buff it out.

[Jonny]

I have been using trend diamond plate
Specifications:
Size: 203 mm x 75 mm x 8 mm
Grade: Fine & Coarse
Grit: 1000 & 300 (15 & 50 micron)

with a shapton 16000grit(.92 micron)
glass waterstone

zero complaints with this setup

[legin]

I use a coarse/fine DMT diamond plate for flattening blade backs mainly, also for flattening my water stone. I use a bench grinder to hollow grind my chisels and plane blades which makes it easier and much quicker to hone. After you grind you don't have to hone the whole face of the blade. After the bench grinder I use a combination water stone 1000/6000 which is just about worn out. I have been looking at getting a ceramic water stone or two. Apparently they don't wear and dish anywhere as fast as traditional water stones and hold their flatness a lot better. I have been looking at Tools from Japan. There is a good video demonstrating his products.

http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/ind ... ts_id=1667

Cheers

[Trevor Gore]

Well, 5 years on, I'm still doing exactly this. The 12" DMT "stones" that I have are no longer made, but mine are still going strong at over 15 years old; I can't remember when I got them, it's so long ago. The equivalent, for less money than I paid for my originals, is this one (in blue and green).

[blackalex1952]

Here is a link to Jim Davey's site, the fine/coarse DMT. I think the pic is of the red one, so I'd specify the blue/green one to be sure to be sure. The US price is a little less but add postage??? Jim's price is cheaper than the Carbatec price. I'm saving up for this one, use Japanese stones and oilstones myself.
The drawbacks of Japanese waterstones are not just in the flatness issue, they also ding easily and form a slurry which rides in front of the edge...not sure if it rounds the edge minutely or not, light pressure on the last stroke gives a finer polish . The advantage of the slurry "bow wave" is that one can quickly tell when touching up a chisel or puttiing a microbevel by hand if the blade is at the right angle.
Jim's site is worth exploring, especially the section on plane fettling and sharpening.-Ross

[SteveG]

Trev, I think these might be your 12" extra flat stones. As far as I can tell they're still being made. They align nicely with what you've said about yours, anyway:

https://www.dmtonlinestore.com/Product. ... oductId=90

cheers

[Trevor Gore]

Steve, those are the Diasharp continuous surface plates. My originals are the 12" Diamond Whetstones which have the "holes" in, the largest available now being the 8". The Duosharp has a sharpening plate on each side (hence Duo...) and a different hole layout. With the Whetstones, if you hone in line with the stone edges, it is possible to develop tracks on the blade. To avoid this you need to hand hone in the traditional figure 8 way, or use a honing guide on a slight diagonal, which is what I do. On the other hand, the Duosharp hole pattern is basically the same, but rotated 90 degrees, so there are no continuous tracks of diamond parallel to the long edges of the plate. So you can hone in-line with a guide without developing tracks, or traditionally with a wider figure 8 because it's a wider stone.

Are holes important? Well, there are the pattern issues above and I think the newer Duosharp is likely slightly better for the things I do. I also have a coarse continuous diamond surface plate (not a Diasharp, but another brand) and I think the plates with holes work better, as the holes get the grindings out of the way. YMMV.

[Jeremy D]

I have the 8" ones and love them (https://www.dmtonlinestore.com/8-Diamon ... -P2C2.aspx).

Havent really noticed the "tracks" developing in the blade, but I think I subcosiously try and move around a bit while sharpening to keep the wear even anyway.

[blackalex1952]

Sorry, folks. I didn't put the link. It seems that these ones have the diamonds in a row and not staggered though, going by the photo.
http://www.jimdavey-planes-sharpening.c ... 27d30e8727
However, for those interested, his sharpening ideas are worth a read. Ross