Cleaning the diamond stones?

[Jeremy Dolcourt]

I have read about 3 different ways to do it and I want to hear from you guys what is the most successful way for you. I have also read that there is a “break in” period for the stones and wondering how long those last. The final question I have for you is do the diamond stones eventually wear out?

Thanks.

[Daniel Saucier]

Welcome to the forum…..

I can answer 2 of your questions:

1: Warm soapy water and a nylon brush(or tooth brush) has worked great for me so far, then just air dry. Simple and effective. If you ever acquire or need to clean the ceramics, I used Bar Keepers friend, worked like a charm. Got the white/fine side looking like new.

2: I’ve seen the stones quoted at lasting upwards of 500+ sharpenings.

Sauce

[Tom Whittington]

500 is way on the low side 🙂 Diamond stones wear in, but take a very, very long time to really become unusable. They’ll continue to get finer as they wear, so in time your well used 400 grit might be more of a 600 grit or so forth, but they’ll keep on polishing just fine! I recall Clay mentioning his “work set” of stones which has thousands of sharpenings on it.

The general break-in period is hard to quantify because folks consider “broken in” differently. Some might say that the stones are broken in after you’ve knocked off the excess or loose diamonds, while others would call “broken in” seeing finer cuts after however many knives. My two cents is I’ve done 30 or 40 and they’re pretty nicely broken in 🙂

Personally I clean and sharpen using Gunzilla gun oil simply because I have a bunch of it I don’t use in the shop on guns oddly enough. I’ve used CLP and other gun oils to good effect, and when it looks like there’s a lot of buildup on the stones I’ll sometimes blast them clean with aerosol solvent or scrub with a toothbrush and Simple Green. Lots of effective ways to clean the stones, don’t worry too much about that 🙂

[Robert Nash]

Hey Jeremy – welcome to the forum – great to have you here.

The only thing I would add to Sauce’s post is that you should stand the handles on end to dry. The hones are recessed into the plastic trays so water can pool behind them

There was some discussion on the life of the diamonds also in this thread on polishing – a bit hard to find – and shameless self promotion :whistle: (or maybe I’m just saving typing…)

I’m not sure about the grit changing or not – I’ve heard different stories on what goes on as the diamonds break in. They definitely will smooth out and not cut as quickly over time – but then they just really make things shine. Has anyone seen any articles or other information on what happens with these fixed monocrystalline diamonds? I’d be interested as I’ve heard that the edges of the diamonds become less sharp with time and that is why they become less aggressive and that it is possible to redress the diamonds to create or maybe refresh the edges.

[Nicholas Angeja]

Anyone ever used magnets to clean the diamond stones? thinking of using a lint roller sheet and a strip of flexible magnet to clean my stones? so….place the lint roller sheet on the stone and the magnet on top. So a sandwich, the theory is the lint sheet is sticky enough to pickup the dust but wont leave a sticky residue like tape, and the magnet will help pick up more steel dust. This way there is less friction and wear on the diamonds, and no possible rust issues.

[Geocyclist]

Like others I just use water, and soap sometimes. Just my finger works well enough on the diamonds stones, so I haven’t even used a brush or anything. I pat them on a towel and then leave them out to dry. I haven’t had any problems with rust. I don’t clean them every knife. In the begging they had more dust, as they break in I notice less dust.

I do leave super magnets setting on the WE base to catch the steel dust, they actually work. Unfortunately they don’t catch diamond dust.

[Mark76]

I’ve regularly put mine in the dishwasher.

Not recommended by Wicked Edge. It will probably void your guarantee, you may run the risk of rust, the stones may come of the paddles… And don’t tell anyone I told you, because I didn’t 😛 .

But my stones are clean and still in good health.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Nicholas Angeja]

I’ve regularly put mine in the dishwasher.

Not recommended by Wicked Edge. It will probably void your guarantee, you may run the risk of rust, the stones may come of the paddles… And don’t tell anyone I told you, because I didn’t 😛 .

But my stones are clean and still in good health.

I hope you rinse your dishwasher after, don’t want to give yourself heavy metal poisoning with metal shavings :unsure:

[Geocyclist]

I washed my entire diamond set today, using water, no soap. I rubbed them in running water on my left hand. When I finished (did the 100’s last) I had scrubbed a spot of skin off my hand until it bled. What should I expect, sand paper would have done the same. Next time I should use brush instead.

[Fred Hermann]

Just a thought, after I clean any of mine I use canned air to get the water out from behind the stones. Just realize it splatters and you REALLY don’t want that in your eyes.

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