Doeswhateveraspidercan wrote: ↑Fri Nov 15, 2019 9:23 am
Interesting what you are saying about the 140 is this an issue once they have broken in?
Have to admit I like the feedback from the King Waterstone better.
The Atoma 140 was used for swift material removal and it certainly did. I probably could have started with the 400 and stopped at 600 then went to paste but wanted to break the Diamonds in some more.
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Little knives are more difficult than large ones I have found that to be true even with guided systems.
I've been enjoying reading your sharpening journey reports, Doeswhatever.
Loose particles occur when breaking in all coated diamond and CBN plates, not just the Atoma 140s. I wouldn't say it's so much of an issue, really.
The challenge I referred to in using the Atoma 140 plate, is that, while it is wonderfully quick to thin out edges with, a moments inattention in maintaining your consistent angle or allowing the blade to run off the edge of the stone will leave those trailing gouges up the side of your blade flats.
So for me it presents a challenge in a good way, in that I like the precision and focus it demands. I imagine the DMT XC and XXC are somewhat similar.
When I first got into learning about sharpening I tended to spend my money on medium and finer finishing stones, figuring they would give me more margin for error, and that I would get the same results as a coarse stone if I just used more passes.
Now I'm the opposite, in that I probably spend 80% of my sharpening time on the Atoma 140. Then I just clean up and refine the bevels with the finer Atomas and the Venev OCBs. Depending on the steel, I sometimes like to finish on the Spyderco UF benchstone. I go quite a bit thinner than 15dps, so I get a lot of quick, convenient resharpenings with the Sharpmaker, before I have to go back to the benchstones.
I agree that there's little utility in polished bevels, however I personally do like to spend a bit of time on the initial sharpening. It's an enjoyable exercise for me, so I don't mind putting in the effort to achieve a clean, polished finish that complements a good quality knife. There is a marginal benefit in corrosion resistance and smooth cutting too, but it's mainly for aesthetic satisfaction.
As Baron Mind said - sharp, healthy edges first and foremost, then looks come last.
Like most of the other sharpeners here, I like to restore a very sharp edge as quickly as possible, hence the Sharpmaker touchups.
Yes, sharpening small blades evenly, like the secondary blades on small traditional knives can be a good test of skill.
Regarding the Shaptons, I only own one 5000 grit Shapton ceramic. In Japan, the Shapton waterstones and ceramics are seen as a fairly basic workhorse stone line.
The Shapton Glass line seems to be popular.
The Naniwa Choseras/Professional line are what I would recommend for alumina waterstones with excellent feedback and abrasive density and finish.
The Sigma Power Select series are interesting vitrified waterstones designed for high speed tool steels and high carbide PM steels, which you don't hear much about these days. I believe they are predominantly SiC abrasive.
Steels do benefit from being matched with the right abrasives though. Sure you can sharpen Maxamet on a brick I suppose, given enough time and good technique, but it's just much quicker and more efficient to use diamonds/CBN or SiC.
The extra time and passes and excess pressure required to sharpen high carbide steels on alumina abrasives can sometimes cause fatigue at the fine apex level too, as you have noted.
Like using different knife steels for different tasks, I think different abrasives are definitely suited for certain steels.
I only really use the alumina waterstones these days for simple carbon steels and stainlesses like VG10. The Atomas and Venevs get the lions share of the work. I'm excited to try the new vitrified CBN stones that are coming out.
Vivi, I woudn't put too much credence in those kind of comments. As you said, they're probably dealing with counterfeits, or are shills or trolls. I'm not going to say that the Atomas are better than DMTs as I haven't tried the DMTs, but they are both high quality, long lasting products, made by companies who know what they are doing. There's plenty of good sharpeners out there who vouch for them. They're not the gold standard of Japanese coated diamond stones without reason.
Chris P. Bacon, I was just reading your sig line. Nice stone collection. Can you give us your thoughts comparing the bonded diamond Naniwas vs. the Venev OCB stones in feedback, cutting effectiveness and scratch pattern consistency and finish? Thanks.