Wow Wade, that is a pretty damning review! I wish you would have come here and posted your thoughts about the Matrix stones as you were using them so I could maybe help out. They are totally different than the Venevs and need to be used differently for their best performance. I do have a few questions, please. I am only listing for clarity, not to be overbearing, I am really interested in your answers.
1 - What grits did you get?
2 - How much time, how many knives did you spend with them?
3 - How many times did you dress them? Did you use around 240 grit loose abrasive on a flat plate?
4 - Did you use light pressure?
5 - Did you use only edge trailing strokes to refine?
6 - Can you give me a link to the Facebook group that you refer to?
Man, you got to talk to me here, I need to understand how you based your opinion on my stones, please. I know how they stack up against Venevs and if you find they performed so poorly then something or things were done wrong. I certainly won't be saying the Matrix stones are the best since there is no such thing. It's kind of like ice cream flavors, we all have our favorites. If this is too much thread drift then let's take it up in the Matrix stone thread, which sickpuppy1 linked to in post #6.
I spoke to Ben and started with purchasing the 2300 and 4000 Matrix stones to act as my finishing stones in conjunction with the 400 and 1000 EP aluminum oxide stones. As I noted previously, I generally sharpen before excessive dulling. I started with a M390 BM 707 that was a little below shaving sharp and the 2300 stone. I liked the feedback I got. After just a hand full of trailing passes with the 2300, I got the knife so sharp that I started to get a little bit concerned, and wound up not even using the 4000. Then I tried a Wustof paring knife with the 2300...again I got it sharp to a point where I felt a little uncomfortable. It sails through paracord. It cuts hair without the blade making contact with my skin if I run it along the base of the hair. Needless to say, I am extremely pleased to be able to achieve such results, and I am going to purchase the 250, 650, and 1100 as well, although I am guessing I will typically be starting at 1100 or 2300 as going coarser would just unnecessarily remove more steel.
Question - if I have the 250-4000 Diamond Matrix stones, and I wish to reprofile a blade or sharpen a super dull blade with some significant edge damage, should I use the 250 Diamond Matrix (with more than the 10-ish strokes, obviously), or start with the 220 EP stone and then move to the 250 Diamond Matrix? (This would be extremely rare.)
Also, I know it bears no relevancy to the discussion whatsoever, but the cosmetic finish of these stones pleases me immensely.
Thanks for the input and making me aware of these.
Hi D Diemaker --I realized I did not quote you so you probably aren't getting a notification. Any thoughts on this? (I attempted to private message you)
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