Thread: How did I live without a DMT?

While cruzing the local woodcraft I foud a deal on a couple of DMT 3X8 plates. I pickd up a course and a fine. I am amaized at how well my norton works after the DMT. I could feel the roughness in the hone through the razor with the hone off the sandpaper. The razor now glides across the hone. The 4K side even looks better. the shave reflects the better surface on the hone. The 325 DMT is the best 50$ I have spent on shaving yet.

The fine has made my pocket knife new again. My wife will not be safe in the kitchen after I get the cutlary tuned up. She will certaly loose a finger tip. A question on the fine. When I get to the tip of the knife on the X stroke it leaves a mark on the plate. Is this normal? I haven't scrubed the plate yet and I am sure it is not broken in yet. I dont wand to damage it in that I need it to set a few bevals. I think I will save for the Xfine now after the 2X8 couticule that will replace the bout.

BTW would anyone be interested in a 220/1000 norton freshly laped I won't be needing it any longer. I also have a diamond lansky sharpening set I am going to Ebay if no one is interested. Although if I were you I would save for the DMT plate and not buy my junk.

Don

Don,

Welcome to the DMT Club. We have T-shirts.

I wouldn't worry about the scratches on the hone. You might mark up the nickel plating, but the diamonds won't go anywhere unless you use very heavy pressure. The marks generally disappear after some use.

Knives are a great way to break in a DMT. I use my 600 and 1200-grits the most on knives.

Have a great day,
Josh

I never really broke mine in as such, I just started using it.

Seemed to work just fine from out of the packet.

Does it get much better if you rub it with a butter knife or the like?

Some of them work fine as they are. But mine have had little bumps on them that I could feel when I honed. The bumps go away with use, or you can speed the process by breaking them in.

Josh

During the first 50 laps or so, my DMT-E ate chips out of a junk TI that I got from Ebay. I could feel the razor hit the stray granules on the surface with every stroke. The evidence was clearly visible at the microscope, even with low magnification.
After a while, the hone started to smooth out. Just to make sure I lapped an already flat Belgian Blue with it.

I love that hone. I use it in my woodshop as much as with razors that are in need of a better bevel.

I owe a double-sided DMT with holes also (350 and 600 grit). That one did not show the breaking-in issue, but it's possible that I did not notice it, because I didn't use it on such fragile tools like a razor.

Originally Posted by junkinduck

...
A question on the fine. When I get to the tip of the knife on the X stroke it leaves a mark on the plate. Is this normal? I haven't scrubed the plate yet and I am sure it is not broken in yet.
...

I wouldn't worry about marks from the knife tip as long as your pressure is even and fairly light. Just don't drag the knife tip completely off the hone or the knife tip will round-off over time. I like to break in a DMT with a hard, *new-to-me* barber hone (I find that SWMBO appreciates my efforts to justify another barber hone purchase this way).

P.S. My avatar pretty much gives my opinion on DMT's. I have my T-shirt already.

Need to save up for a DMT

Just ordered a coarse DMT to lap my Norton 4k/8k

i've been lapping my hones with sandpaper and a tile i got from homedepot to make sure its flat. this way wasn't the best method but it worked decently. the sandpaper would roll up as you used it, the pressure would rip a hole in the paper. there was alot of mess and i went thru sandpaper quick when doing it. it left me not flattening my hones nearly enough.

well, i started doing these scales and more restores. the bigger blades and wedges need more work on the hones then most of my hollow grinds in the rotation. so i started really putting the hones to use and i could tell they weren't even but it sucked using a piece of sandpaper each time to flatten. i finally gave in and bought me a DMT dia-sharp coarse hone with the hone holder rubber thing.

man, let me tell you how freaking happy i am i finally bought it. it works fast and efficiently. i lapped my hones and instantly i could see they weren't perfectly straight even though they seemed to be using sandpaper. so i flattend more and it went quickly, even the chinese 12k was fairly quick to flatten. i now flatten with about 20seconds of DMT each of my hones after every night's use. its super easy and quick and not messy. i can tell the difference in the razors as i've been able to get even the trickiest of razors nice and sharp.

i'm extremely glad i bought one to flatten out my hones. super great idea.

~J

I just purchased a DMT 3 micron and 25 micron. Previously I've been using only diamond pastes, but I'm interested to see how these hones work for bevel setting and polishing prior to finishing on finer diamond pastes.

Also I bought them from this place: http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/T!D8.htm

$35 for the regular 3 sizes, which is a steal if you ask me.