When to use diamond hones?

K

kevral

Joined
May 8, 2004
Messages
61
I am somewhat confused on whether or not to get a set of diamond hones.

I have been told on the one hand, that steel is too soft so that it'll rip the diamonds off the hone; and on the other hand that diamond hones are highly effective and'll last forever.
In particular, I have a pair of knives with hardness around 60-62, that I am NOT looking forward to trying to hone with waterstones.

Anyone with experience able to help me?
 
Since I am an individual of very limited patience I use diamond stones on everything that I can't sharpen on my shop grinder. I usually use the very fine stones on harder knives and reserve the medium or coarse for the very soft knives that round off during use and require a lot of metal removal at each sharpening to reshape the cutting edge.
 
I'm with George on this. Diamonds are the only way to go with the new fangled, high alloy steels.
 
I wouldn't think you'd have any problem performing most routine sharpening of those 60-62 Rc blades with your waterstones. After all, Japanese craftsmen generally prefer waterstones, and they frequently harden tools to ~65 or so.

For reprofiling or removing significant blade damage, a diamond hone can save a lot of time and effort ... though not nearly so much as would an inexpensive belt grinder.

I don't particularly like the finish that diamond hones produce, but occasionally use coarser ones for rough honing. FWIW, I find using a circular or figure-eight motion with a coarse diamond hone removes metal faster and with less pressure than if I use an edge-leading "slicing" motion like I would on an India or Crystolon stone, and leaves less work to be done if you intend to use finer media to polish the edge.

Dave
 
I'll use diamond (red) for removing a lot of material for reprofiling or fixing a damaged edge. But I much prefer ceramic for touch-ups and such.
 
For me, Diamond is great when I have to remove allot of metal, particularly
with hard metals.

I have modified my Edge Pro to use Diamond hones, and I find myself drawn to them more and more due to ease of use ( no messy water lubricant etc )

When new they cut aggressively, but settle ( slow ) down quickly to a state that many might think have 'worn out'. But their cutting ability is still there.
 
It was for the EdgePro setup I was thinking of getting a set of diamonds, too. But when I called to ask for blanks to mount EZ-Laps, I was told that the steel would eat up the diamonds....

Thinking I might try after all, at least for the hardest steel. Might even order an extra honing blank to mount a piece of leather on.

Thanks for the help so far!
 
I am with ColoradoDave here. The diamond stones cut quickly and I use a 220 grid if I need something done that the sharpmaker would take to long for. But I don't like the finish that it gives either. I very much prefer the finish of a 220 waterstone. I feel that especially on hard steels the diamond stones introduces micro chips in the edge, while the waterstones do not. As in terms of quickness, I think the coarse waterstones cut at least as quickly, even for higher hardness steels. Their only drawback as I see it is that they need to be lapped.
 
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