Edge Pro diamond stones

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Belly

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Hi everyone. I need some advice on buying some Edge Pro diamond stones. I can’t afford to buy too many, maybe 3? I am trying to figure out which 3 grits to get. They start at 80, 250, 450, 650, 950, 1100 and then a few more. I already bought the 650 grit.

I want to get a few that would lead to a reasonably smooth final edge. I don’t want it to be too rough. I have the original 6 or so regular ones that came with the sharpener, but I want to add some diamond plates. Thanks for any advice!
 
Either add the 250 and 950, or the 950 and 1700 if you are happy with the 650 being the coarsest one of the lot. Since you already have the 650 don't bother with the 450, the micron sizes are 35 and 40 so you see there isn't much of a difference between them. The 450/650 stones are the first to start refining the edge, IMO, and both the 950 and 1700 leave a very nice edge, especially if you end with a few strokes with very light pressure. The lighter the pressure the shallower the scratches. While this is somewhat true with all stones diamonds are the sharpest abrasives and will still cut with less pressure than other abrasives.

You will notice the biggest difference to how sharp your knife is with the coarsest grits and the smallest difference with the finest. The difference between the 1700 and 4000 is small, and if you strop you will notice even less of a difference in how sharp it is.
 
Diemaker said:
Either add the 250 and 950, or the 950 and 1700 if you are happy with the 650 being the coarsest one of the lot. Since you already have the 650 don't bother with the 450, the micron sizes are 35 and 40 so you see there isn't much of a difference between them. The 450/650 stones are the first to start refining the edge, IMO, and both the 950 and 1700 leave a very nice edge, especially if you end with a few strokes with very light pressure. The lighter the pressure the shallower the scratches. While this is somewhat true with all stones diamonds are the sharpest abrasives and will still cut with less pressure than other abrasives.

You will notice the biggest difference to how sharp your knife is with the coarsest grits and the smallest difference with the finest. The difference between the 1700 and 4000 is small, and if you strop you will notice even less of a difference in how sharp it is.
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Thank you for the great advice!
 
Belly said:
Hi everyone. I need some advice on buying some Edge Pro diamond stones. I can’t afford to buy too many, maybe 3? I am trying to figure out which 3 grits to get. They start at 80, 250, 450, 650, 950, 1100 and then a few more. I already bought the 650 grit.

I want to get a few that would lead to a reasonably smooth final edge. I don’t want it to be too rough. I have the original 6 or so regular ones that came with the sharpener, but I want to add some diamond plates. Thanks for any advice!
Click to expand...

I have the whole set of original diamond stones. The most useful are the 250, 650, and 1100.

The 250 removes material at a reasonable rate, and can leave a nice edge if you're looking for something coarse. The 650 and 1100 are a little more reasonable, though. Most of my blades are usually done to 650 or 1100.

The stones that are finer than 1100 are really good for putting a polished edge onto the blade, but I don't find myself doing that very often nowadays. If you're into that, then by all means consider going all the way up to 4k. The 80 is for removing a lot of material quickly, but I found that a cheap diamond plate is much quicker.
 
Bases on emails from Ben and Cody I bought the 450, 950 and 4000. I am still waiting on them to get here. USPS says by Monday. I thought they had a higher grit, but I am not seeing one on the website. Ben mentioned something about a 6000.
 
Tjstampa said:
Bases on emails from Ben and Cody I bought the 450, 950 and 4000. I am still waiting on them to get here. USPS says by Monday. I thought they had a higher grit, but I am not seeing one on the website. Ben mentioned something about a 6000.
Click to expand...
The first batch of Matrix stones were 2300, 4000, and 6000. How high you can go depends on your blade, the harder the higher the grit you can use before you run into problems. The 6000 only worked on very hard steels, the 4000 doesn't work on softer steels, and the 9000 works fine on ceramics. When the fixed abrasives quit working then it is time to move to strops or tapes. What I mean by quit working is random deeper scratches and all fixed abrasive stones have this in common. The finer the stone the fussier they are about keeping clean, well dressed, and what you use them on. The difference between fixed abrasives and strops is night and day when you are trying to polish. Stropping mediums are a whole other topic and about as involved.

Rule of thumb is the coarser the abrasive the harder the bond/strop, the finer the abrasive the softer the bond/strop. So far I have not found a circumstance where this doesn't hold true.
 
Thanks for the replies and info everyone. I do appreciate it.
 
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