Spyderco Forums

I have some diamond rods for my Sharpmaker that work great. But I have only used them on blades without a coating.

I have a couple 1095 steel blades with a coating (Becker, ESEE) and less than desirable edges. I would like to take them back to 30 degrees, which will involve taking off a lot of the coating. Any special considerations using the diamond rods for this?

What's the best way to clean the diamond rods? I've just been rinsing them off in the sink with a little soapy water.

In general diamonds can stand any coating just fine. I sharpen a lot of blade with different coating - no problem.
Only problem I know with diamonds is rapid wearing if push too hard - but this depends on diamonds quality.
There is monocrystalline and polycrystalline diamonds. First is whole diamonds welded to steel plate with Nickel,
like layer of Nickel on top of steel plate with diamond stick out of it. Second - polycrystalline is when small diamond
particles kind of baked together to form bigger particles, so it is not solid piece but rather bunch of small stick
together. Of course solid diamonds are much stronger and last much longer - a lot longer.

I am not sure what kind of diamonds Spyderco uses and who is their subcontractor for this rods.

I am not aware of any other cleaning procedure for diamonds then one you already mentioned.

anomad wrote:I have some diamond rods for my Sharpmaker that work great. But I have only used them on blades without a coating.

I have a couple 1095 steel blades with a coating (Becker, ESEE) and less than desirable edges. I would like to take them back to 30 degrees, which will involve taking off a lot of the coating. Any special considerations using the diamond rods for this?

What's the best way to clean the diamond rods? I've just been rinsing them off in the sink with a little soapy water.

Just sharpen the coated blades like any other as far as I know. I have with no problems.

I don't have the diamond Spyderco rods but I think you are washing yours fine. For diamond stones I have used a stiff toothbrush or small scrub brush with comet or something like that.

Just be sure to dry them off.

Ken

If you have a lot of re-profiling to do, it might be worth it to invest in an even coarser diamond stone, such as DMT's. I've used coarse stones to "knock the shoulders off" some of my ESEE's, helps them slice a bit better. I didn't try to put a full convex grind on them, just knocked the angle back a bit. I really like the Sharpmaker, but that is the one option I wish it had, is an even more aggressive diamond rod for when a knife needs a lot of work.

I ended up using sandpaper on a flat surface to knock the shoulders and coating back. It worked fine. My becker necker took a very acceptable edge. I think sandpaper is the tool for removing those coatings, I'll save the rods for cutting steel.

I like the 3mm ESEE knives, but that coating is like bedliner. I should try stripping one sometime. The becker coating feels less "sticky" when cutting things.

Stripping chemically coating will expose unfinished blade surface. Manufacturers save a lot on
polishing by hiding raw, after grind blade under one or other coat. I am trying to avoid knives
with coating - it looks nice NIB but with use it get scratched, fall off etc - depends on quality
and looks ugly in result. And only because it is easier to coat then polish.

You may strip it, but then you will have to polish it. Reason that it is not left simple unpolished
by manufacturers who do not like to polish is hygiene and corrosion. If surface is not polished it
will attract water and dirt and your blade will be dirty, not healthy and corrodes. This is why they
have to coat it. Stripping coat of left you with vulnerable unhealthy blade so you will have to polish
it yourself, which is not very easy job to do properly.