Thread: DMT 8C or ATOMA?

I find them pretty useless as a hone tho some may use them that way. To me it feels like honing on 9 miles of bad road.
I just use a 320 grit Shapton Pro for heavy work & leave the Atoma for lapping

Do you find that for razors? I sharpen enough knives, scissors, etc for it to be nice if it's handy in that department. I've used my cheap diamond hone on a gold dollar razor that was totally dull. I think the finest side is around 800 grit. It felt very rough. It's fine for knives though. Though it's an odd hone as despite the low price it's a flat, continuous surface unlike the diamond-pattern ones you see all around. It's some gimmicky TV thing from China or something with a pull-through sharpener on the handle. I like it because I can hang it up in the kitchen and generally abuse it. No worries if I need to replace it.

Though I'm fairly certain if I tried to lap full-size stones I'd kill it in short order. The hard slate ones especially. Also I don't trust it to be perfectly flat.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

I find them pretty useless as a hone tho some may use them that way. To me it feels like honing on 9 miles of bad road.
I just use a 320 grit Shapton Pro for heavy work & leave the Atoma for lapping

I must agree with that - honing a razor on one feels very bad indeed and gives you the impression that its knocking the hell out of the edge - not a good feeling at all. I have the atomas in 140 (for bananas and other fruity stones! ), 400, 600 and 1200 and as an aside I can tell you that although there is far less stiction than a DMT at the lower grits. this advantage rapidly trails off at the higher end - the 1200 atoma likes to get good and friendly with the hone after precious few laps.

Regards,
Neil

I agree with most posters here.
The Atoma, I have them all from 140 to 1200, are much nicer as lapping plates than the DMT's.

I started out with the DMT 325, and have actually gone thru a couple of them by now, but I'm not getting another.
The 600 and the 1200 are somewhat usable as hones, but there are better alternatives out there for honing.
A 220 Grit Shapton Pro, or a 400 Chosera feels way better when laying steel to it.

Where are you guys from the US purchasing the Atoma's, been wanting to try one out.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Where are you guys from the US purchasing the Atoma's, been wanting to try one out.

Scott,

Mine came from here. There may be a cheaper place but this one took PayPal if I remember correctly.

Atoma 400x

Originally Posted by dadsavage

Do you find that for razors? I sharpen enough knives, scissors, etc for it to be nice if it's handy in that department. I've used my cheap diamond hone on a gold dollar razor that was totally dull. I think the finest side is around 800 grit. It felt very rough. It's fine for knives though. Though it's an odd hone as despite the low price it's a flat, continuous surface unlike the diamond-pattern ones you see all around. It's some gimmicky TV thing from China or something with a pull-through sharpener on the handle. I like it because I can hang it up in the kitchen and generally abuse it. No worries if I need to replace it.

Though I'm fairly certain if I tried to lap full-size stones I'd kill it in short order. The hard slate ones especially. Also I don't trust it to be perfectly flat.

I think I have read of guys using them on knives but yeah a bit hard on razors.
I actually use my old DMT's on my cheaper kitchen knives.

I must agree with that - honing a razor on one feels very bad indeed and gives you the impression that its knocking the hell out of the edge - not a good feeling at all. I have the atomas in 140 (for bananas and other fruity stones! ), 400, 600 and 1200 and as an aside I can tell you that although there is far less stiction than a DMT at the lower grits. this advantage rapidly trails off at the higher end - the 1200 atoma likes to get good and friendly with the hone after precious few laps.

As I said earlier the suction factor really doesn't bother me. I get it when I lap on wet & dry on glass or the diamond plate I have. I imagine it's pretty much an inevitability, but I do all my lapping under running water so it's not a big issue.

I agree with most posters here.
The Atoma, I have them all from 140 to 1200, are much nicer as lapping plates than the DMT's.

Another vote for the ATOMA stones. Thanks.

I think I have read of guys using them on knives but yeah a bit hard on razors.
I actually use my old DMT's on my cheaper kitchen knives.

Makes sense.

So far it seems the ATOMA is the hands-down winner. I'm curious though if there are any other options? I've heard of people using eze-lap diamond hones for this, are they any good?

I have a really long sillicone carbide stone that's good for nothing, but seems about the right grit for lapping (something like 1-200 and 400-800 on the two sides) and I've used it on my slates to chamfer the edges (I like a reasonably large bevel and didn't want to eat into my sandpaper); I may take to it with some 80 grit sandpaper and see if I can get it nice and flat for lapping. It's much harder than any stones I'm using and eats into them at a far faster rate than they eat into it (if they eat into it at all) so I think it should stay flat for a while.

I should have a diamond stone for lapping in a month or two though, and based on what this thread has told me it's looking like it'll be the ATOMA. Probably the 600, maybe the 1200.

Atoma 400 hands down. The cheapest place to get them (as long as you have paypal) is toolsfromjapan. TFJ is only in yen, though, so the price moves around with currency fluctuation. I looked just now and see them at $69 plus shipping (total should be somewhere in the range of $80). It takes a little longer sometimes to get stuff from japan, mostly because of our customs, as when I've had EMS and watched the tracking, if it's taken weeks to get something, it's at JFK in 3 days, and the rest of the problem is on our side.

Of course, you can pay extra and get them faster if bought domestically. I've got two 400s, and have had them for eons - before they were available in the US and before anyone other than So had them. I think I may have gotten them both from Alex Gilmore when he came back from a trip a good while ago. I've used them both for lapping and sharpening tools. They are the only diamond hones I've had that have stood up to being used for both without getting stripped out on the surface.

The previous comments about them honing are accurate to me. They are brash because the diamonds are arranged in little bunches with empty space between the bunches. That arrangement is what makes the hones tougher and what keeps the stiction down on stones.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

I find them pretty useless as a hone tho some may use them that way. To me it feels like honing on 9 miles of bad road.
I just use a 320 grit Shapton Pro for heavy work & leave the Atoma for lapping

What do you mean? I'm no good with miles The coarse Shaptons are better honers when it comes to heavy work?


Edit: Sorry, I missed page two.

Originally Posted by Laurens

What do you mean? I'm no good with miles The coarse Shaptons are better honers when it comes to heavy work?


Edit: Sorry, I missed page two.

Roughly 1.6 km to the mile, so ABOUT 15 km.