Thread: Diamond Hones?

Are there any diamond honing stones that are good enough for honing a straight razor?

Sometimes use my DMT 1200 for chips and bevels on certain razors,if you meen a diamond finisher,dunno.

Dia-Sharp makes the DMT continuous plates that some guys use. I use their DMT D8C (325) for lapping water stones and I have used it to sharpen kitchen knives, and to take a bad chip out of a Sheffield wedge. I've used the DMT 1200 for bevel setting in the past but no longer use it at all. I have a DMT 8000 , the finest they make, and I've used that on really tough steels, ATS-34 and S30V razors, but always followed with a waterstone of finer grit.

IMO, they leave an edge that is too harsh even using the DMT 8000. Others may have different results but those have been mine and I don't recommend them. I'm much happier with a Chosera 1k for bevels, norton 4/8 for sharpening/finishing, and pick a natural or higher grit water stone for further refinement of the edge if you want icing on the cake. Just IMHO, YMMV.

I use diamonds for lapping my stones, making blade corrections like chips and frowns, and getting out of the doghouse...

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I use diamonds for lapping my stones, making blade corrections like chips and frowns, and getting out of the doghouse...

More often than not, getting out of the doghouse! LOL

Lapping stones and blade corrections are the best use of this medium.

Even using a diamond pasted strop with .25 diamond will leave a harsh edge. It will be quite sharp but uncomfortable.

There is some controversy about diamonds and their use for razors. In the lower grit range (like 325 and 600) the diamond stones are accused of causing large chips that will not be polished out
during a normal honing session and cause microchips later on. That needs further research in my opinion. Here is an extensive explanation of what I am talking about:
Shapton 16K Straight Razor Edge Chipping Controversy « Jende Industries Blog
On the other hand there are many friends of the DMT for honing razors in the lower grit range like 600 and 1.200
Here is a thread about Seraphims synthetic progression including the dmt 600 and 1.2k. He posted some pictures (extreme high magnifiaction) of beautiful edges here
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...ic-Progression

At the end of a finishing routine a very fine diamond paste applied to balsa, leather or felt is sometimes used to finish the edge.
There is some controversy as well as many claim to get harsh edges, whereas others seem to get awesome edges.

There is but one stone that *might* be fine enough to finish a razor on. This would be the DMT 8k EEF, but to be honest I wouldn't bother
and simply use one of the more common brands for your finishing stones like Naniwa, Norton or Shapton.

BUT there is one exception. That would be diamond lapping film from 3M. These come in many grits including 9µm, 6µm and 1µm, as well s 0.5 and 0.1µm.
The diamond lapping film is way more expensive than the usual AluOx lapping film with no real benefits. But I can assure you the diamond lapping film
works beautifully on razors. I just love the 1µm lapping film that I use for finishing my razors. I shave directly off of the 1µm diamond film