DMT-D8F
This stone features fine diamonds (25 micron / 600 mesh), roughly equivalent to a 600 grit stone. It doesn't sound very fine, but trust me, this is a workhorse and will get you very close to a final edge without a lot of time or effort. I think a lot of people make the mistake of assuming "more is better" when it comes to very fine grit stones... it's not better, it's just smaller grains, which actually makes the sharpening job much longer and more frustrating if that's all you have. I'd personally much prefer to have a few coarse and regular fine stones than a bunch of very high grit expensive stones... trying to get a precise and long-lasting edge quickly and consistently is much easier when you start with a more coarse stone. If you just start with a 1000 or above, you'll be going at it for a long time, and the added time won't make a better edge, it will just more likely result in an inconsistent edge (and a frustrating experience). A coarse, fine, and extra fine set will be much more useful for most people than a bunch of more expensive higher grits!
Guaranteed not to hollow or groove, DMT®’s precisely engineered Dia-Sharp® Bench Stone with continuous diamond surface assures consistent, even sharpening every time. This D8F fine plate is very heavy and very flat and is great for both knife sharpening as well as for helping remove scratches left on fine stones from flattening with the coarser DMT diamond plates or other flattening stones.
Diamond sharpening "stones" like this are an affordable, easy and fast way to sharpen your knives. And of course they never need flattening, so no need to invest in a lapping plate!
Measures 8" x 3".
Note that DMT does NOT recommend this stone for lapping/flattening waterstone. Get one of the big DiaFlat lapping plates (extra-coarse or coarse) for that job, they will hold up MUCH better!
NOTE: Because they are so fine, the surface of these stones will appear scratched and there may be small indents/pits in the surface, but it's just a by-product of their manufacturing and does not affect performance. It's not as visible on the more coarse stones because of the big chunks of larger diamonds on the surface.
I bought this 600 grit DMT dia-sharp along side several other diamond stones and could not be happier with their performance. Shipped very quickly and came in perfect condition. Worked every knife in my kitchen and bushcraft collection. These stones work and feel amazing, and this 600 does an amazing job of putting a pretty fine edge on a number of my knives by itself. I'm very pleased with this purchase.
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.
