Thread: Diamond Stones

I have acess to a diamond sharpening stone that I have used to sharpen my carving knives. I was wondering if anyone has ever used something like this for a razor or if it would even work.

Probably too rough for razor work.

It's almost definitely too rough to use for honing, although it would be useful if you needed to take out a big nick or something.

Josh

Not to mention that them things are ideal for flattening your other waterstones.

Howard uses one to flatten all the stones he sells, I think. I would caution against using it on a Norton or similar big stone unless they're the same size. Lapping a big stone with a smaller hone tends to cause scratches on the bigger stone.

Josh

THAT'S the key question. DMT now makes an 8000 grit "diamond waterstone" and it's an awesome piece of technology. I've been using one for about 2 months now and am not ready to say that it's the alpha and omega for razors. It is very impressive though. That being said, there is a big difference between diamond stone makers in terms of monocrystalline diamonds and polycrystalline diamonds. Monocrystals are more expensive but last longer. Polycrystals are cheaper. They will both hone like crazy. I tried the cheap Chinese diamond hone knockoffs but was not happy with the longevity or the uneveness in the surface of the stone. It's not easy to get a piece of very flat steel coated evenly with well graded diamonds and then grow a plated matrix up from the steel around the diamonds. The DMTs are very high quality and they stand behind their product.