Spyderco Diamond Rods

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Tony
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Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
Location: VA USA

Spyderco Diamond Rods

#1

Post by Tony »

Has anyone used the new diamond rods for the Sharpmaker? I've ordered a set from New Graham Knives.There are several cases where the coarse rods don't sharpen quick enough on some types of stainless steel like that of my Buck 120 General.
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Jurphaas
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Location: Leiden Netherlands

#2

Post by Jurphaas »

Hi Tony - Welcome to this fine forum. Impatience is a bad teacher. I'm sorry to hear that you think your sharpening isn't going fast enough. The 204 TriAngle sharpmaker is a very powerful tool if used correctly. The fact that your Buck knife isn't sharpened as quick as your Spydies has nothing to do with using the diamond rods or not.
Spyderco goes the extra mile when it comes to factory sharpness of their blades. They bring an extremely sharp bevel to all of their blades. Many other producers do not go that far. In their search of cutting costs they don't put a very sharp edge like Spyderco on their knives. In many cases they also use lesser grade steels (420 or 425 modified or such, Spyderco uses 420 only for their stainless handles)
Now. why is your sharpening not going so fast? It's because the factory bevel is much thicker than the bevel you are trying to archieve. For a 20 or even 15 % bevel like you do with the 204 system, you sometimes have to remove a lot of material from the blade to restore that sharp edge you are looking for. I my 12 years of sharpening demo's with this system, I,ve only twice met knives that were so far gone that I had to use the diamond sleeves (at that time). Keep your stones clean at all times and work according the instructions and you will archieve a super sharp edge with out the use of diamond rods.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your efforts.

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J Smith
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#3

Post by J Smith »

Jurphaas,I agree with you that it can be done with the brown stones and I have done it because I do not have the diamond rods but I have come up against a couple of knives (non Spydies) that the diamond rods would have really helped out on.I think it would have cut down the prosess from a 2 hour job to a 20 or 30 min job.Keep in mind that these knives were really far gone and one was a Frost(never did get an edge on it).
Also I can't agree more about keeping your rods clean,it makes a huge differance.

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HoB
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#4

Post by HoB »

I find myself agreeing with Jurphaas aswell. On the other hand, I find a rough diamond stone (or waterstone for that matter) very handy to cut in a decent bevel. My experience especially with the Buck factory edges were not the best and it takes a lot of work to rebevel them to anything close to 40 deg. But I prefere the DMT diamond stones, just because I think they are a little bit more versatile, although they really don't allow to work on a re-curved or hawkbill blade.
thorin hammer
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#5

Post by thorin hammer »

When you start using your new diamond rods, don't push hard. You will dislodge the diamonds... Then you will end up buying a new set! My dealer told me this after he had several customers complained to him after they had used them too hard.

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