Sharpening - I'm sorry!

[Droogs]

I'll throw my tuppence in the ring. After being alerted by a thread on the forum, I purchased 2 diamond plates from ITS 1 x coarse {300}/medium {600} and 1 x fine {1000}/ extra fine {1200}. I have fgound them to be very good and are about half the price of the usual trend plates. from what i can see there is no difference at all other than the logos. they work extremely well for the price. you can get them here:
http://www.its.co.uk/Hand-Tools/Sharpening-Tools.htm (currently on sale for around £20)

I also use this to finish up before a quick strop a combination 3000/8000 waterstone by taidea for £26 (usual price not black friday deal)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00R ... ge_o01_s00

HTH

 

[skipdiver]

I use a concrete block, seems to work well and is cheap.

Where can i buy one? :lol:

 

[heimlaga]

For me it is waterstone wheel, band sander ,and some old waterstones. Depending on what I am sharpening.

 

[xraymtb]

Amazing how quickly these threads go off track...

If you have been using scary sharp then you have an idea of which grades work for your purposes. Google a abrasive comparison chart and compare diamond plates to the grits you have been using.

 

[D_W]

Washita and a dry grinder...and a bare leather strop.

 

[Craigus]

Thanks all for the posts. I ended up going to Axminster today and got one of their 400/1,000 grit diamond stone, I must say it is so much easier to get a good sharp edge.

I don't really need to go sharper but I may get a 6,000+ waterstone at some point just to improve it slightly before honing, though I can't imagine it makes a noticeable difference to be honest.

 

[skipdiver]

Having advocated the use of a plain old oilstone, i did buy the £5 diamond stone offer from Trend last week and it does speed things up somewhat, quickly getting the cutting edge somewhere near, before tranferring to my oilstone. I may get some more and give them a try. You're never too old to change.

 

[xraymtb]

I would say from limited experience that all the different methods work, whether that be oil, diamond, scary sharp or what have you. There are pros and cons to them all (scary sharp is cheap to start for example but is a continual expense - diamonds are fast and stay flat for a long time but don't go as fine as other abrasives).

At the end of the day, you make a choice, get a coarse, medium and fine grade, and learn to use it. The end result is sharp tools. It's about finding what works for you.