What level of sharpness with 1000grit diamonds?

[Skyler J Baker]

I am currently debating buying a pro pack 1, however I can’t seem to find any references to how sharp you can actually get your knife with the 1000 grit diamonds without stropping or going to a finer stone.

I had the Spyderco sharpmaker, and although I got good results I decided to sell it when I realized I was avoiding steels such as s90v because I didn’t want to spend several days reprofiling and found that my results were a little inconsistant along the edge, meaning although the edge shaved better, and sliced cleaner than the factory edge, it would catch slicing newprint and tear where as most my factory edge Spydercos would not, Practically this didn’t matter but it bugged me.

Most the info I’ve read about the edge the 1000 grit stones simply said they sliced printer paper and shaved. Which to me was a very basic level of sharpness, at least for the expense. Has anyone easily push cut newspaper, whittled a hair etc with the diamonds?

Also I would consider the 3 micron diamond stones and diamond tape. I actually don’t want to polish the edge too much like the ceramics would because I’ve found I like some bite on my sXXv series steels, but I still it to be pretty darn sharp

[tcmeyer]

The 1000-grit diamond stones are about the highest you would go if you wanted to retain some “bite.” If you want the very highest degrees of sharpness, you’d probably want to go to a more acute angle. Many forum members report hair-popping sharpness with the 1000’s.

[Skyler J Baker]

Pretty sure I’ll make my order tonight then.

[Austin Nelson]

Pretty sure I’ll make my order tonight then.

Just please be aware this level of sharpness on 1000’s has a learning curve and it takes some time for the stones to wear in. Once they do however it’s absolutely fantastic

Austin

[tcmeyer]

Vono is absolutely right. The 1000’s will get you close, but you’ll need a lot of experience to reach it. In any case, if this is your goal, and you decide you still need finer grit stones, you would have needed these stones anyway.

And be advised that breaking in a new set of stones can take a while. Go to a thrift shop and buy a bunch of $1 knives and have at it. If your stones don’t feel really uniform, they’re probably not broken in yet. Meantime, great practice.

[Josh]

Yeah the guys are def. correct! It will take about 15-20 knives to break them in fully. After that 1k grit edges will be insanely sharp – but it depends on how you define “sharp” I define it to mean having a clean crisp apex that will penetrate something with little pressure. The next thing you get into is cutting ability – which is how well your blade actually cuts through something. This will totally depend on: stock thickness, edge thickness, and edge angle. For example… I can take a knife w/ a thin edge (say .010″ thick) and run a 1k grit stone 90 degrees into the edge completely dulling it, and then take a sniper blade works folder (SUPER thick) and put a mirrored edge on it. The primary will out perform the latter due to the geometry of the blade on most items.

1k grit, after broken in should give you a tree topping (arm hair) edge that excels at almost any EDC task. I put this edge on all my folders. Here is a video I did recently showing it cutting some phonebook paper at the end

[Skyler J Baker]

Yeah the guys are def. correct! It will take about 15-20 knives to break them in fully. After that 1k grit edges will be insanely sharp – but it depends on how you define “sharp” I define it to mean having a clean crisp apex that will penetrate something with little pressure. The next thing you get into is cutting ability – which is how well your blade actually cuts through something. This will totally depend on: stock thickness, edge thickness, and edge angle. For example… I can take a knife w/ a thin edge (say .010″ thick) and run a 1k grit stone 90 degrees into the edge completely dulling it, and then take a sniper blade works folder (SUPER thick) and put a mirrored edge on it. The primary will out perform the latter due to the geometry of the blade on most items.

1k grit, after broken in should give you a tree topping (arm hair) edge that excels at almost any EDC task. I put this edge on all my folders. Here is a video I did recently showing it cutting some phonebook paper at the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QiDJu_S-CE%5B/quote%5D

That is a #*$&#$*# lot sharper than I’ve managed. Well I managed to do it, ordered the pro pack with the 3u micron stone and glass blanks as well, after seeing that video I think I didn’t need to, but it along with the supplied strops should allow me to get a nearly mirrored edge if I catch the desire to do so.

[Austin Nelson]

I have definitely given some thought into the 3 micron stones but have the micro ceramics so it’s been alright and have gotten some really really nice edges with that set up and of course stropping.

Austin

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