Spyderco Forums

The double sided 400/800 coated CBN stone is one of the new releases from Reveal #6 that I am most excited about.

I have always been a fan of diamond plates, DMTs, Atomas, etc. I like their cutting speed, feedback and feel. I like the polished toothy edge they can set you up for.

Aside from complaints about wear rate from using too much pressure (i am a offender here myself), the biggest critique of coated diamomd plates is that they cut too deep, monocrystalline diamonds having tall peaks, and sitting on top of the plate rather than being embedded in a binder resulted in deep scratches that could not easily be polished out by higher grit stones.

The biggest selling point I've heard about CBN vs Monocrystalline Diamond is that CBN particles have a greater number of less acute cutting edges, meaning they remove more material without making such deep scratches. This quality theoretically could help tone down and balance out the abrasive nature of a coated plates.

If Sal and company see this, could you let us know what material the plates are made out of?Is it a ceramic base like the Doublestuff 2? Is it a metal plate similar to DMTs? Something different?

I prefer freehanding on 1x6 stones, stone in hand, as opposed to large 3x8 stones fixed on a bench, but I know people who can cut the larger plates down to custom size. I am eager to get my hands on one of these.

I'm very interested in this as well. I have a couple CBN stones I purchased from Shawn/BigBrownBear that are pretty darn good, but one stone with both those grits could make for a good simple sharpening set up that would handle pretty much everything.

I'm excited to see Spyderco get back to their "first we made things sharp" side

What would be a nice coarse diamond to complement this with? DMT XXC/XC or Aroma 140?

Baron Mind wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:17 pm

I am eager to get my hands on one of these.

Bemo wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:32 pm

I'm very interested in this as well.

GarageBoy wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:09 pm

I'm excited

I have found my coarse Diasharp diamond plates have gotten better over time. I also found that doing a reprofile with the coarse grits left pretty deep scratches.

After using them for a few years they have "smartened up" a bit and I can work through the grits a lot faster than when they were new. I do some pretty aggressive reprofiling with many of my tools, chisels, planes, knives etc.

The first few times I worked with my coarse diamond plates I ended up having to step back down a grit to remove deeper scratches. That hardly ever happens now that they are well broken in.

I am keen for one of these. My shed will love it.

GarageBoy wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:09 pm

I'm excited to see Spyderco get back to their "first we made things sharp" side

What would be a nice coarse diamond to complement this with? DMT XXC/XC or Aroma 140?

I use a 140 grit plate only for repairing a significant chip, or substantial loss at the tip. Basically just for blade shaping.

For reprofiling or even installing the edge bevel, I really like my DMT 220 Extra Course. It cuts fast but not too fast, however it was excessively aggressive at first.

Now that it's broken in, the scratch pattern is shallow and consistent enough for a 600 grit Atoma or DMT to quickly and completely take it down.

This new double sided CBN plate from Spyderco seems to be promising.

FullScaler wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:17 am

I have found my coarse Diasharp diamond plates have gotten better over time. I also found that doing a reprofile with the coarse grits left pretty deep scratches.

After using them for a few years they have "smartened up" a bit and I can work through the grits a lot faster than when they were new. I do some pretty aggressive reprofiling with many of my tools, chisels, planes, knives etc.

The first few times I worked with my coarse diamond plates I ended up having to step back down a grit to remove deeper scratches. That hardly ever happens now that they are well broken in.

I find this to be true as well regarding the Diasharp extra coarse/coarse two sided stone. Thankfully my first use with it was with a machete of mine and I couldn't believe how coarse that extra coarse side was. I've used it on the machete, a hatchet and ax so far. I want to tone down the aggressiveness a bit before I start using it on pocket knives.

That said, if this CBN stone is the same as the stones for the Sharpmaker (which I have) then I think they will be just fine. Those seemed to break in fairly quickly for me.

I use the Atoma 140 for grinding more acute bevels. I stop just short of apexing with it, checking with a 10x loupe, so it doesn’t leave a really ragged edge.

I think it would go well with the new CBN stone.

I’ve asked a few times whether people find a noticable difference between diamonds and CBN in edge quality. There hasn’t been much discussion on this point so far.

I seem to find that with the submicron stropping emulsions that CBN gives a smoother, more uniformly finished feel to the edge.

I only have the Doublestuff 2 in coated CBN. I use the ceramic side much more than the CBN side. I have used the CBN side a bit, but it’s difficult to compare it accurately to the larger Atoma plates with their different ‘raised polka dots’ abrasive disposition.

Any more comments on CBN vs diamonds?

Baron Mind wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:17 pm

If Sal and company see this, could you let us know what material the plates are made out of?Is it a ceramic base like the Doublestuff 2? Is it a metal plate similar to DMTs? Something different?

Hey, Baron Mind:

The "embryo" (fancy technical name for the plate) of the CBN stone is carbon steel.

Stay safe,

Mike

I make it a point to get all of Spyderco's great sharpening tools. I'll be getting one of these ASAP. I haven't even gotten the CBN stones for my 204 Sharpmaker yet. So I'll get them all next payday. I've never ever been disappointed with any of Spyderco's sharpening tools.

I also can't wait for the newer GOLDENSTONES to come out as well.

Sal sent me one to check out

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:55 pm

Sal sent me one to check out

Nice. I need one!

I posted on the video Shawn but will post here as well. Thanks so much for doing this. I didn't realize how thin the stone is (not that it affects effectiveness mind you but good to know). And as one of the chronically heavy handed sharpeners out there, I need the constant reminders that less pressure is better with these.

Hi Shawn,

Thanx for the video and the input.

sal

Thank you for the video Shawn. I'm really curious to compare the coarse side to the 300 grit diamond plate I've been sharpening the majority of my PE knives with this year. I don't see myself ever going to a high polish for PE knives for the most part, so this interests me much more than the ceramic stones I used from Spyderco in the past.

Thanks Shawn, I’m looking forward to this one.

For reference:

0.25 μm polycrystalline diamonds at 50K x magnification:



0.25 μm CBN at 50K magnification:



And 0.25 μm monocrystalline diamonds at 20Κ magnification:



More images of abrasive particles from the Scienceofsharp website:

https://scienceofsharp.com/2014/12/04/a ... r-the-sem/

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:55 pm

Sal sent me one to check out

...

Thank you Shawn for the video.

Please, one question. In the video, you stated microns to the corresponding grit sizes and these are obviously given in JIS and not in ANSI, right?

Because it's a little bit confusing, which standard is suitable for sharpening tools from all over the world :confused:

Thank you

Could you use this to thin out an edge on a knife, say at 10 degrees per side, then set a microbevel on the Sharpmaker at 15 degrees per side?

Hamilton

Michael Janich wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:39 am

Baron Mind wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:17 pm

If Sal and company see this, could you let us know what material the plates are made out of?Is it a ceramic base like the Doublestuff 2? Is it a metal plate similar to DMTs? Something different?

Hey, Baron Mind:

The "embryo" (fancy technical name for the plate) of the CBN stone is carbon steel.

Stay safe,

Mike

Thank you sir! I'm always happy to learn new knife industry jargon as well