I thought I would introduce myself hear as this is where I will be spending most of my time. I am a active member of a knife forum and have been collecting and sharpening for a long time, I like talking about knives and especially about sharpening but the sharpening topics are usually basic and there are not many members that have the advanced knowledge to understand the the finer side

My obsession for the sharpest edge has led me to diamond hones and diamond compounds on high quality leather strops. I recently sold all my other stones including a lapped spyderco UF ceramic (kinda kicking myself for that one) and decided to put all my efforts into the diamond hones. I sharpen a lot of high wear resistant steels so ceramics and water stones were not doing me much good and the results I am getting from my DMT EEF were good enough for me to consider it a finishing stone.

Though the DMT EEF does a great job I'm starting to wonder if other finishing stone would be worth my time. I gave up on the water stones (king brand) because they were just not effect enough on the steels I sharpen and even a 8000 grit stone was not yielding the polish expected. The ceramics I liked but they seemed to cause excessive burring and probably some burnishing effects that I'm not real fond of.

So I guess my question is should I be satisfied with what I have now or will other stones or methods bring me to a higher level. My level of polish and sharpness is good but I like the mirror look, diamonds get close but not perfect. I'm also thinking of getting into straight razor shaving and don't know if I'll need a finer stone?

Examples of the results I am achieving now.


DMT EEF on above knife looking edge down


CPM-M4 sharpened with EEF and 1 micron diamond compound