Diamond sharpeners..

[ironglow]

   Looking to get into diamond sharpeners (stones & boards etc):
 
      Question: For all round use..touching up hunting and pocket knives...putting an edge on my kitchen and butcher knives ...what grade to use..fine/medium/coarse...or numbers such as 325, 220 etc ?
   
                                                                thanks...Ironglow

[singleVI]

  Start with the roughest and work down to the finest. I have a two-sided diamond sharpener with medium and fine. I use the medium to get a correct angle on the edges and develop a burr then switch to the fine to smooth out the edges and make a super-scalpal edge. Here's my technique... With the medium side, slide the blade down the stoen from the hilt to the tip 20 times with some pressure to develop a burr. You may need to do it more than 20 times if its a new knife and it doesn have the correct angle. Then I flip the blade and do it 20 more times to make a burr from that side. Then on the Fine side I make a pass, then flip it over and make another pass flipping the blad over every time I pass. After 20 passes I Change the angle a little bit and only using the weight of the blade make 4-5 more passes to get rid of the final burr. You can test the blade with ur fingernail to see if there is any burr left. Keep using very light pressure to get rid of it and you'll have one sharp puppy.

[SDS-GEN]

You won't regret buying a diamond "stone",  you will use it long after the face of an india stone would have "dished".  I use a Medium grit then polish with a fine ceramic.

[ironglow]

  Thanks guys..
   
  I will be ordering some of them. From what I gather, instead of oil as a suspension medium, diamond stones use water..is that how you do it ?