Which diamond stone and strop combo?

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minheco
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Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by minheco »

Hello everyone,

I have a Edge Pro Apex system with:
Edge Pro 220 Grit Stone
Edge Pro 400 Grit Stone
Edge Pro 1000 Grit Stone

My knives are mostly folding pocket knives (S90V, S110V, 20cv, S30v).

I need help picking at least 1 diamond stone to add to the system and a few strop/compound combination. Please let me know what you recommended. Thanks so much.
Radar53
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by Radar53 »

Hi There minheco & welcome to the forum. I'm no expert in those steels (or knives) but I think that they are tough, wear resistant steels & some may even be PM steel. So based on that I would make the following observations.

Consider the CkTG diamond stones of 140 & 400 grit (400 grit here < https://www.chefknivestogo.com/ck400grdiplf.html >).
The EP standard stones would be a real struggle with those steels and would become an exercise in frustration in short order, so I would add these Shapton Glass stones ie 500, 1000 & 2000 (Please note that the Shapton grit ratings are based on Japanese standards and bear no resemblance to the EP grit ratings.)

So the above would give you a good progression of CKtG 140, 400 followed by SG500, 1k & 2k.

I would try the above first and then review the diamond compound loaded strops once you see the outcome from the stones.
Cheers Grant

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Lepus
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by Lepus »

They're all PM steels, mostly incredibly doped up ones. S30V with stones is manageable, but I would want a full diamond progression for S110V and the like.
minheco
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by minheco »

Thank you Radar53 and Lepus for your input.

So I'm thinking:

CKTG 140 Diamond (107 um)
CKTG 400 Diamond (41 um)
CKTG 1000 Diamond (15 um??)
Either Shapton Glass 2000 (7.35 um) or 4000 (3.68 um) Input please.
Balsa with 3 um DMT diamond paste
Balsa with 1 um DMT diamond paste
Balsa with 0.5 um DMT diamond paste

What do you think?
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Otaku19
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by Otaku19 »

I would definitely recommend the 2k before the 4k especially after a diamond progression. One of my favorite progressions is using the Spyderco ceramics after diamonds. The only caveat is that you have to clean them. You can buy the Medium and Fine and mount them to Edge Pro blanks. Ken Schwartz sells all 3 already mounted. After the UF, I use a Stropman HD Compact with 1 and 0.5 micron compound that gives a beautiful mirror polish.
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by Radar53 »

Can you elaborate on what you use these knives for and also give us some insight in what you are looking for from your stropping? That will help us to provide more targetted responses.
Cheers Grant

Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not going to get you!!
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by David_R »

With those steels I'm guessing Spyderco knives.

You've gotten some good recommendations. In my experience with a lot of hard steels like you have (plus Maxamet), the stock EdgePro stones will try your patience. (At least they did mine.) They may eventually get you there, but man are they slow.

Shapton glass stones are very nice and are an option. I have all of them except the 30K. Rather than doing that, I'd also suggest going to diamond stones for those steels. They'll better and faster. And if you end up with Maxamet or Rex 121 they'll sharpen those too. I have some of the CKTG diamond stones and they're fine. I recently got a set of the EdgePro diamond stones, and they're great. They cut hard steels like crazy and finish incredibly well. Sharpening on hard steel is faster and easier. The finest is 4K and 5 micron.

I'll 2nd the recommendation for wood strops. I got some EdgePro blanks and glued balsa and bass wood to them. I prefer bass to balsa, but both work.

PS: if you get the EdgePro diamond stones, keep them clean. I use 95% alcohol and a paper shop towel after every use. A little scrubbing until they come clean. They cut much better when clean. After you apex your blade you can go to trailing strokes only. I know it sounds crazy, but this is recommended, esp for the 1K-4K stones. After the edge is profiled where you want and apexed, 10-15 trailing strokes per side of the blade (pocket knife, not kitchen) will do it. (I did a little more than this to get a mirror edge on Maxamet.)
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Re: Which diamond stone and strop combo?

Post by ken123 »

For the steels mentioned I would go with diamond plates. Depending on the initial shape of the edges you could start at 140 grit. 600 1200 then I would go to a 3000 grit plate and from there use poly diamond on white nanocloth strops starting at 3 micron (6k grit) on up as fine as you wish.

---
Ken
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