Picking a diamond stone

[DMH1112]

I am going to buy a DMT diamond stone. I am only going to buy one initially because they are quite expensive. What grit should I get, EX coarse, coarse, fine, or EX fine?

[Donsexton]

I want to know this as well.

[mateo]

An idea that I have toyed with but never tried, because of the price tag: double sided extra course/course diamond, used to fix nicked blades and reshape bevels on new tools. use a 1000/6000 grit water stone to finish sharpening and polish tools, and use the xcoarse diamond to flatten the 1000 grit side of the water stone, when it dishes. The knock against diamond (besides the price) is that there's not a really fine grit for polishing. The knock against water stones is that the course grits dish quickly. It seems like my strategy would negate the negatives and give the best of both worlds. Maybe........

[Dan S]

I would go with the fine or extra fine. I rarely need to take a tool back to the course stone for repair but I do use my fine stones regularly. Also, courser stones tend to be cheaper. You can always get one later.
What is really going to cost you is your wife wanting a diamond because you got one!

good luck,
Dan

[CarverFromNoWhere]

If your getting one of the dia sharp double sided models I would go with fine/x fine. I have all of the dia sharp 8" stones they are great and I didn't just get them all at once I bought them over a few months period.

DMT is a great brand for diamond stones and in my opinion the best.
Carl

[carver33]

The first diamond that I picked up is a fine - next will be X fine.

Unless you're making blades, you shouldn't need anything coarser than thet.. The fine works well for re-dressing the blade and putting it in pretty darn good shape. An x fine water stone will work well for going the rest of the way.

[tmrkr]

Before you buy you might want to check out Harbor Freight. They have diamond stones and the price is very reasonable.

Terry

[Dan C]

I have a DMT 2" X 6" diamond stone with "fine" on one side and "extra fine" on the other. It's a 2-in-1 stone, so you save a bunch of money by going that way. I'm pretty sure I bought it online from Woodcraft. Usually, the extra fine side is all I need to use. I have some of DMT's other diamond stones also, but this is the only one I find myself using so far.

I suppose if you are trying to get a chip out of the cutting edge, you might need something more coarse, but, for me anyway, I'd send a chipped blade out to Rick at Little Shavers to be fixed.

The other thing, is that I would recommend that you NOT get a stone with all the little circles of diamond on it. That stone design works fine (maybe) for knife blades, but isn't any good for sharpening small gouges.

Dan C.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Whatever you do don't buy one without seeing it. I've seen diamond stones that were totally wortless. I use a waterwheel to prepare the blade should it have a nick then the extra fine diamond for the last step prior to buffing or stroping.

[DMH1112]

I found a DMT 6in fine and extra fine diamond stone for $47.