DMT D8E Pierre à aiguiser Dia-Sharp 20,3 cm, extra fin, grain 1200

This stone was one of four (320, 600, 1200 , 4000) I purchased to work on some very tough steel blades, and I am shocked by how great these stones feel during sharpening. I was leery of diamond stones but really needed something stronger than the old stones I had for sharpening. The DMT dia-sharp stones are so good in every way. Very well made and produce excellent results. Most of my outdoor knives could probably be finished using the 600 grit DMT dis-sharp, but the edge this 1200 leaves has so much bite due to the striations these diamond plates leave versus traditional whetstones, that I am amazed at the results for a stone listed as "Extra Fine". Highly recommend these DMT stones. Shipping was fast, prices are more than fair. Great product, excellent service.

I recently started making wooden hand planes and the steel I have been using was reclaimed sawmill chipper blades (extremely hard) and some O1 oil hardening tool steel that I purchased. After trying multiple methods for ensuring I had a dead flat surface I expended a lot of energy and pretty much wore out my Norton 1000/4000 water stone. After researching diamond whetstones quite extensively it appeared as though the DMT stones were the best way to go. I purchased the Dia-sharp fine, extra fine and extra/extra fine stones for my needs thinking I could do the coarse work using emery cloth on my lapping plate and my water stone for the coarse grind on my primary bevel. I found the fine to cut quite agressively (compared to water stones) but this was somewhat expected. 20 strokes on the fine stone had a consistent scratch pattern across the back of the blade. Another 20 strokes on the extra fine created a lighter scratch pattern and another 20 strokes on the extra/extra fine left a very fine scratch pattern. I anticipated a little more polish with the extra/extra fine as it is listed as a 6000 grit. My 4000 grit waterstone will leave a more polished surface. However, the blade was sharp but not quite what I anticipated. A few passes on a strop though had the blade making fine strips from the edge of paper. In total I spent about 20 minutes in this process where a waterstone would have been over an hour and require me to flatten the stones a couple times. In the attached photo the blade sitting between the two plates had a bad trip on a power lapping plate which caused it to be ground more on one side. It only took 10 to 20 strokes on each stone to get a consistent scratch pattern at the business end.

The 1200 Grit DMT stone is the perfect companion to the Fine DMT stone. Really sets the edge up for Stroping.
Also, fantastic service and Shipping from Paul's Finest as usual.