Diamond stone/plate options for Edge Pro

jbarsquat

jbarsquat

Joined
Feb 22, 2017
Messages
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Good morning BF! I have gotten very comfortable with my edge pro and can achieve great results on most blades. I now have two knives waiting for some attention but I do not know which route I should go. I bought the apex 4 and have since added the CKTG brand of diamond plates in 140 and 400 grit, as well as the 6000 polishing tape. I made some balsa strops and have diamont paste for them. So far I have had great success with this setup but I am looking to add a few more diamond plates or stones because I have an M390 and Elmax knife that both could use a new edge. My dillema is which ones to buy. I am assuming that the old addage "you get what you pay for" is true here. I wanted to get something in the 800, 1200 grit or somewhere in that ballpark. I have seen great reviews regarding the Atoma diamond plates that they sell on CKTG, but those things are VERY expensive! I have seen on gritomatic many different options but with limited review. Anyone have experience with the ones from gritomatic that can let me know how they perform? Should I just suck it up and get the shapton glass stones or will those not perform well on these stubborn steels?

TLDR: Have edge pro, which diamond stones are worth spending money on?
 
In my limited experience, Edge Pro stones and tapes work fine on M390 to put a polished edge.
If you want to add finer diamond abrasives, what about diamond lapping films? There are more grit sizes available from 30~40 down to 0.1 micron. I only have limited experience with them, but they did work well on high vanadium carbide steels.


Miso
 
I'm definitely open to suggestions. I know that the edge pro stones do not work very well for reprofiling on CPM S30 or S35 which is why I bought the two diamond plates to begin with. I am not familiar with diamond lapping films, but after a quick googling I see a few different options. Have you ever used these with some sort of adhesive on the edge pro blanks? The knife I have in M390 is the one I want to slightly reprofile instead of following the factory edge.
 
jbarsquat said:
Good morning BF! I have gotten very comfortable with my edge pro and can achieve great results on most blades. I now have two knives waiting for some attention but I do not know which route I should go. I bought the apex 4 and have since added the CKTG brand of diamond plates in 140 and 400 grit, as well as the 6000 polishing tape. I made some balsa strops and have diamont paste for them. So far I have had great success with this setup but I am looking to add a few more diamond plates or stones because I have an M390 and Elmax knife that both could use a new edge. My dillema is which ones to buy. I am assuming that the old addage "you get what you pay for" is true here. I wanted to get something in the 800, 1200 grit or somewhere in that ballpark. I have seen great reviews regarding the Atoma diamond plates that they sell on CKTG, but those things are VERY expensive! I have seen on gritomatic many different options but with limited review. Anyone have experience with the ones from gritomatic that can let me know how they perform? Should I just suck it up and get the shapton glass stones or will those not perform well on these stubborn steels?

TLDR: Have edge pro, which diamond stones are worth spending money on?
Click to expand...

Hi,
it depends on how much money,
but I would argue most any diamond plate is worth it
as long as you're aware of and dont mind the potential issues


for ~$4 you can get 1mm diamond plates in any "grit" from 80 to 3000
Size: Approx. 17 * 7.5cm / 6.69 * 2.95in

you can also get them in 1mm x 9inch x 3.14inch for $7.99

they even come in squares like 7x7 and what not

4mm thick $16.99 150*50*4MM CG416 Weight: 250g Diamond Grit: 400# 600# 1000#
mounted on plastic 10inch $21.84/$22.99 400#/1200# 250x70x10mm LX1602
8inch 8mm thick metal 28.35/31.50 203*70*8mm. LX1012T #400/#1000

1.2mm thick 10inch $19.99/$17.99 1PC Single side Professional Diamond Knife Sharpener Sharpening stone Whetstone 1200 Grits 250x70x1.2mm DMD1610

ok the above listed ones aren't the same pattern as atoma,
but some are full plate, some are honeycom, some have dots
...
the problems with these they could
take a month before they arrive using free shipping
could need returning back to seller because
come damaged or falling apart,
could be easily damaged despite using the required low pressure with them,
need straightening/flattening (the thin stuff)
need gluing to a backing/board to stiffen up
come too coarse and need breaking in or zero pressure super ultra light lapping to give finer grit finish
...

lots of people buy this stuff from ebay/aliexpress/amazon...
not a lot of people review this stuff by comparing to more expensive stuff
but it all has value just depends on what is most important


Compare this thing I can get locally for ~$20 versus a same size (6x2) red dmt fine 600 grit for ~$31 locally

tB7G3br.png

What you see is tungsten carbide scissor sharpener, tunsten carbide knife v-sharpener, and ceramic knife v-sharpener, and 400 and 1000 diamond paddle
this paddle is cheaper online and DMT is same price plus shipping

how important is the supposed grit consistency
and whatever other benefits of DMT products have
at 600 grit? 1500 grit?
 
Last edited:
jbarsquat said:
I'm definitely open to suggestions. I know that the edge pro stones do not work very well for reprofiling on CPM S30 or S35 which is why I bought the two diamond plates to begin with. I am not familiar with diamond lapping films, but after a quick googling I see a few different options. Have you ever used these with some sort of adhesive on the edge pro blanks? The knife I have in M390 is the one I want to slightly reprofile instead of following the factory edge.
Click to expand...


I bought films with glue and stick them on the Edge Pro film blank.

For reprofiling, your diamond plates should work fine. I use the Gritomatic's bonded diamond stone #150 for heavy reprofiling then use silicon carbide stones from Congress Tools (Moldmaster) from #240 to #400 (40 micron). These stones remove S35VN quite nicely.

After this, what you would need depends on what kind of edge you would like to have.
I personally like a toothy-polished edge. So after the #400 stone, I just polish the edge lightly with 1 micron diamond suspension dried on a #2,000 Edge Pro polish tape for S30V, S35VN, and S110V.
(This doesn't give you a polished edge, but If I continue to work on the edge with this diamond abrasive, I can polish it quite easily and quickly)

If you want a really polished edge on S30V or S35VN, you may need diamond abrasives. Because aluminum oxide stones and tapes should work fine down until 10 micron even on these high vanadium carbide steels (typical size of vanadium carbide), you can probably just use the Edge Pro stones (mostly aluminum oxide) to #600 (10 micron) and then polish the edge with either diamond lapping films or diamond suspension/pastes.

Again, if all you need is a stone for reprofiling (or resetting the edge bevel), I don’t think you need high grit diamond stones but rather a coarse diamond stone. And you already seem to have a few.

Just a suggestion.


Miso
 
Thank you both for your information. Sounds like I am pretty close I having what I need already. I have not attempted to sharpen either one of them yet as they haven't needed it until now. I will be ordering some film and give it a go.
 
Thanks for sharing that. I use a very similar process for daily carry pocket knives but I take my kitchen kitchen knives and high end knives to a much higher grit and polish the hell out of them. I do like to use a hard felt block for burr removal when going up to the higher grit levels.
 
Just noticed this thread and can add I have used psa backed diamond films from 45 micron down to .5 micron with good success. The ones I use are very durable. So much so that I can debur using light edge leading strokes without damaging the films. My source is Jende. So far, everything I've gotten from them has been great.
This link. https://www.jendeindustries.com/ind...edge-pro-diamond-films-by-jende-5-pieces.html

They take a while to deliver - I think they ship from China but they last so long you will have plenty of time to order more.
 
I will check those out as well. I did get some diamond lapping film, and it's worked very well.
 
jbarsquat said:
I'm definitely open to suggestions. I know that the edge pro stones do not work very well for reprofiling on CPM S30 or S35 which is why I bought the two diamond plates to begin with. I am not familiar with diamond lapping films, but after a quick googling I see a few different options. Have you ever used these with some sort of adhesive on the edge pro blanks? The knife I have in M390 is the one I want to slightly reprofile instead of following the factory edge.
Click to expand...
 
I have experience with a few. I've had DMT, Atoma and recently Gritomatic. The DMT works great. It's a 6"x2" thick nickel steel base. Great for larger knives...not so good for small(because of size, not abrasive). I am unimpressed with the Atoma. At $75, it's one of my most expensive stones. And it's falling apart now! After only a couple years of use! The abrasive film is peeling off the plate. The Gritomatic I just purchased, is amazing! Both in quality/performance & value. I like the bonded diamond "stone" much better than the thin diamond "plate" style-such as the Atoma. This was the first Gritomatic I purchased. They will be my "GO TO" from now on.
 
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