I purchased just the Fine one sometime back in April, wanting to have a way to touch up my EDC wherever I went--friends houses, relatives, that kind of thing. I pretty quickly found that it worked really well for sharpening people's neglected blades. 1. I couldn't really tell in the video how bad that edge was, but it didn't look all that severe to me. Last time I was at my friend Claudia's, I sharpened I think 5 different cutco knives, a couple that were even more than 7" and they all had edges that looked similar. 2. I didn't really bother to get them as sharp as you did in the video, just slicing regular notebook paper, but it didn't really take me too long. Started when she started cooking dinner and was almost done when it was ready.
3. I really like the idea of using a mouse-pad for a non-slip surface. You commented that one side wasn't as sticky as the other... Perhaps you could cut out another layer with the same dimension, and glue the two less-sticky sides together. Then you'll have the same grip strength for the counter top and for the back of the DMT hone, plus it will raise it up a little bit more.
4. I use mine in a pretty odd way, maybe I'll take a picture if I'm feeling like it later but basically I just hold the edge of the hone with three fingers on the surface, and my thumb backing and pinching the hone in place on the underside. Then I just hold it there with my fingers and sharpen by pulling the blade toward me so I don't have any fingers in the way to cut. It takes a couple of tries to get use to, but I've gotten so use to it that I actually prefer this over using my benchstone as I can use both hands to manipulate both the hone and the knife blade, orienting and moving each one as needed, so I can get superior angle control than I could with a benchstone. Might be a useful tip though in case you're ever in a place where you can't set it down on a flat surface.
5. Also, you can get edges VERY sharp with just the Fine hone if you lighten up on the pressure to sub-knife weight levels near the end. I mean just barely touching, to the point where you can just barely feel the grit engaging the edge and can hear it even less. I do this for just a few minutes side-to-side after I get a knife shaving, paper-push-cutting sharp on it and it will take it right up to hair whittling. I strop on MDF loaded with CrO after that and it will tree top. Of course I'm using really fine grained steels ( 1095, 14C28N ) and 30-35 degree bevels. But I've been carrying just the one as the "minimalist" approach and I'm very surprised at what it's capable of.
6. When you were talking about the surface not being flat, is that just because the swarf would concentrate in one location more than the others? I also noticed that before the break in, the swarf would have kind of "wavy" lines... Hard to describe, but it went away and loads up evenly after mine broke in.
Also, did you notice any of yours having raised edges or corners? Mine had two big honking burrs on both side that kept me from getting some blades perfectly flat ( and in some cases damaging the edge ) so I had to rub these sections off on a flattening stone.
Over all I love mine, I've used it for tons of knives by now, and more times than I can recall. The only time I break out my waterstone any more is if I'm working on a knife with serious edge damage--talking deformations or chips of .020" or more dimensions, or if the tip needs to be resharpened, something like that. I've even found that for me it's more useful as a finishing stone than the 1000 grit benchstone as I can control the angle and pressure better, and get much sharper edges off of it than off the 1000 grit waterstone.
I've been wanting to get the Extra Fine for a while, but just not sure I really want it. I'm already getting ridiculously sharp edges so it would only really be about the added bevel polish for me. As it is I actually really like the balance between toothy and polished that 600 grit leaves. I regret not buying the pack of 3, because if you buy them separately then by the time you factor in shipping, you're only like $10 off the price it would have taken to get all three.
