Got a DMT Dia-Sharp 8E (1.2k equiv) and a DMT Dia-Sharp 8EE(8k equiv). This was my first time working with real stones. My only other experience honing was with 3M's papers on marble tiles.
I took out my Hill & Sons (a Sheffield blade) that I had had some problems with, and got to work. Honing can be so rewarding when stuff comes together. Thanks to Glen's wiki entry on honing, I was able to get this problem child of a blade sharpened. I started out by bread knifing it to take out a bunch of micro chips. I bread knifed it all the way down to the base of the old bevel, cause one of the chips was pretty deep. The blade wasn't warped, but there was some problem with the blade/spine geometry that took a bunch of circle honing on both sides to fix. And all of this so far was done on the 1.2k Dia-sharp. As much as I love that stone, it made me realize I need yet one more hone. :) Either the 325 grit course Dia-sharp or the 600 grit Fine. Doing alot of bread knifiing and geomotry correcting with the 1.2k stone just took waaay too long. Even setting the bevel with the 1.2k took longer than I thought it would. It was popping hairs nicely by the time I was done with the 1.2k.
Then on to the 8EEF. Wow, that thing cuts *fast*, and puts a *very* sharp edge on the blade. And I now know first hand what you guys are talking about when you say a blade off of a 8EEF Dia-sharp is harsh. Hol-y cow, it's harsh. Yeah, it'll pop the hairs right off yer arm, and about three layers of skin, just for good measure. It's just *rough*! And this is even after I used the 8EEF to lap my Swaty stone. I was hoping that would tone it down a bit, but it still left the blade harsh.
So speaking of the Swaty, I did about fifty laps on it, and it really got rid of the harshness from the 8EEF. After the swaty, I went to the pasted paddle strop. 25 laps at 1 micron, 25 laps at .5 micron, 25 laps at .25 micron, followed by 125 laps on bare leather.
Anyway, thanks for letting the new guy ramble on about honing...this is much more fun that I thought it was going to be... oh, and I do have a couple questions... Which stone should I get, the 325 or 600 Dia-sharp? Also, what would be the ideal diamond paste size to follow the Swaty?
