Byphy
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Just chatted with @Dr. Knives and I guess he was removed from commenting on this thread. Looks like the stones that got sent to @Mariner were sent back, so he will send them out again 
Vitrified Diamond #400 & #3000 Passaround
- Thread starter Dr. Knives
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why was he removed from commenting here?Just chatted with @Dr. Knives and I guess he was removed from commenting on this thread. Looks like the stones that got sent to @Mariner were sent back, so he will send them out again
Byphy
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Good question, I guess too much discussion around pricing
I just picked up a 400 vit from him myself and like it a lot
- Joined
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interesting for sure...Good question, I guess too much discussion around pricing
I just picked up a 400 vit from him myself and like it a lot
would you consider reviewing it?
Byphy
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Np
I posted my initial thoughts on it here:
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/show-your-newest-sharpening-gear.54825/post-1040375
After playing with it again tonight for an hour, I'd say it doesn't cut quite as fast as I initially thought, but I'm still overall very happy with it. I'm using it for refining bevels and removing previous coarse grit scratches.
Yo. If im able to get in between two other in the states. Im definitely willing to get in there.
Amazing, looks like diamonds are a man’s best friend 
I just received these today. Looking forward to trying them out and reporting back. I have admittedly more experience in knife reviews than stones so if folks have suggestions on what will be helpful, please advise!
Having used these for about a month now, I want to report back on my experience
The TL;DR is that the coarse stone is remarkable; the medium/fine stone inconclusive (because I lack the expertise to give a qualified judgment beyond what I'll describe below).
The coarse stone
What tests were performed? Sharpening a wide variety of knives including soft and HSPS stainless and several carbon knives. Thinning soft stainless monosteel (Mercer chef knife) and high-end carbon sanmai (Mazaki White #2, HVB 52100).
Conclusions:
The medium stone
What tests were performed? Sharpening a few soft stainless knives (Mercer chef knife, Wusthof classic slicer, nameless paring knives) and two carbon knives (HVB 52100, Huber 52100). Half-hearted attempts at polishing progression on Mazaki White #2 and HVB 52100 (more below). I honestly used this stone a lot less because I don't do a lot of 3000 grit work at home.
Conclusions:
The TL;DR is that the coarse stone is remarkable; the medium/fine stone inconclusive (because I lack the expertise to give a qualified judgment beyond what I'll describe below).
The coarse stone
What tests were performed? Sharpening a wide variety of knives including soft and HSPS stainless and several carbon knives. Thinning soft stainless monosteel (Mercer chef knife) and high-end carbon sanmai (Mazaki White #2, HVB 52100).
Conclusions:
- The maker/seller rates this as about a 400. However, its cutting speed is comparable to me with a Nanohone 200, one of the fastest-cutting stones coarse stones I've used. It's difficult to quantify the cutting speed exactly, but anecdotally I found myself overshooting the mark repeatedly while cutting new bevels because of this speed.
- One trade-off in speed is dishing. The stone's rate of release is somewhere between a Nanohone 200 and Shapton Glass 220. In my experience, a Nanohone is one of the most expensive stones to use per minute because it can easily shed 1-2mm per hour of use and costs $70/pop.
- Feedback is consistent with the hardness of the stone. No complaints, good marks.
- Scratch pattern is good and consistent. I'm splitting hairs here, but the scratches seem coarser than 400. That said, they also erase very quickly in the next stone - I can jump straight to a 800/1000 and be done in a few minutes.
The medium stone
What tests were performed? Sharpening a few soft stainless knives (Mercer chef knife, Wusthof classic slicer, nameless paring knives) and two carbon knives (HVB 52100, Huber 52100). Half-hearted attempts at polishing progression on Mazaki White #2 and HVB 52100 (more below). I honestly used this stone a lot less because I don't do a lot of 3000 grit work at home.
Conclusions:
- The maker/seller rates this as about a 3000. It's very difficult to quantify this once you get above 1500, especially given the hardness of the stone. That's because scratch patterns have more to do with the binding media, steel, and pressure used than the stone itself and...I'm just not a professional polisher. So take the following with a grain of salt.
- Scratch pattern is consistent with the other 3000 grit stone I have. That said, due to the stone hardness, I found vitrified diamonds to be counterproductive in polishing because you tend to use hard stones to check your work from soft stones (e.g. Use a soft 1000 grit to erase blending marks from your 400. This leaves a hazy finish, which obscures scratches entirely, so you use a hard 1000 grit to remove that hazy finish and check scratches still remaining).
Diamonds just don't play very nicely once you get past the medium grits and I found it hard to distinguish my lower-grit scratches from my 3000 grit scratches. 3000 grit diamond scratches aren't as deep as 1000 grit ones, obviously, but they're quite visible; perhaps "overly shiny" is the best way I can describe it?
Final thought here is that despite the pains of polishing with diamonds, I did find that cutting speed continues to be very fast even at 3000 grit. Somebody with more confidence than I have might find themselves using this to blow past the 3000 grit mark and replacing visual checks with aggressive use of this stone. - Feedback suffers from the sheer hardness and fineness of abrasive, but that's table stakes at 3000 grit.
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Byphy
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I’m not in the pass around but I do have the 400 and to piggy back on Mariner’s review, I’ve recently required a former Kono MB gyuto that was sharpened down to a suji.
Both sides were like this with little core exposed.
I played around with the 400 for heavier thinning and after 20 min. or so was able to expose the core steel on one side. (The finish in the picture above is not from the 400).
I since have gotten a Debado 180 and tried using it on the other side and after a longer thinning session, the core steel has barely moved in terms of exposure.
This is on soft stainless clad.
Now it could be that the cladding is not 50/50 with the core, but the 400 seemed to cut faster and more aggressive than the Debado. I would agree with Mariner, the 400 seems more coarse than what it is advertised as. In fact I would agree with most of Mariner’s sentiments re: the stone. I am to the point where I feel this 400 is as coarse of a stone as I need. Anything that requires heavier steel removal I would just go with mechanical.
I’ve had Venev 100/240, SP120, SG220, SG500, Nanohone 200, Gesshin 400, pink brick and others. This 400 clears everything to me. Of course I’d still like to test others, but it would be hard pressed to top this.
Both sides were like this with little core exposed.
I played around with the 400 for heavier thinning and after 20 min. or so was able to expose the core steel on one side. (The finish in the picture above is not from the 400).
I since have gotten a Debado 180 and tried using it on the other side and after a longer thinning session, the core steel has barely moved in terms of exposure.
This is on soft stainless clad.
Now it could be that the cladding is not 50/50 with the core, but the 400 seemed to cut faster and more aggressive than the Debado. I would agree with Mariner, the 400 seems more coarse than what it is advertised as. In fact I would agree with most of Mariner’s sentiments re: the stone. I am to the point where I feel this 400 is as coarse of a stone as I need. Anything that requires heavier steel removal I would just go with mechanical.
I’ve had Venev 100/240, SP120, SG220, SG500, Nanohone 200, Gesshin 400, pink brick and others. This 400 clears everything to me. Of course I’d still like to test others, but it would be hard pressed to top this.
Thanks for the reviews! Fun stuff. Where are the diamonds headed next?
I'm afraid I don't know. DrKnives appears to have their account restricted due to KKF rules on vendors, so is unable to post.
Perhaps you can pm him?
Chasingsharpness
Well-Known Member
Very interested in these stones, look forward to hearing more impressions in the future
just got a picture of a box, looks like the stones have arrived! In NYC this week, so I’ll be picking them up this weekend. Is there a format for the content of stones testing folks like?
Ok ya’ll, been testing them out. Still a little more to go. I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a sharpening stone guy. My previous go tos were a crystolon combo, a few India combos, the scorpion forge whetstone and the spyderco bench stones. I view stones as tools to make the knives better, I don’t tend to sharpen for fun even if it is relaxing to do so my experience is likely more limited than most of you.
Current testing knives: Fujiwara FKM; my folks kitchen knife. Thinner sporadically, heavily used, with light microchipping along length and the edge now failing to bite nails. I believe these guys are aus-8??
Walmart mystery special stainless. God knows what it’s made of. Lightly thinned previously, not as heavily used thanks to the FKM (huzzah!), edge is unsurprisingly no longer sharp.
Kizer sheepdog 10V. Previously sharpened on the lansky. Edge is on the cusp of being alive, but has lost its bite. Will likely only need the medium but it’ll see both stones for testing.
Carothers UF2 in D3V steel/heat treat. It has some previous damage to the steel I’m not looking to remove entirely, but it’s also missing an edge which I’ll be putting on it.
Waiting to get home, have S110V and CTS-XHP waiting on it, potentially some 15V as well.
Per Dr. Knives recommendations, using water as lubricant and light pressure.
Coarse stone:
I don’t do enough wood working to know how 400 grit feels. Stone is definitely fairly toothy to the finger though. Surface texture isn’t really equivalent to anything I’ve used before, I assume due to the diamonds actually having some prominence where other abrasive materials frequently get worn down. Closest thing in feel are the diamond rods from the Lansky turnbox, but a bit finer.
It’s a very loud piece as well, which I think is common to any vitrified stone and most diamond plates from what I’ve read. Lot of abrasion + very hard surface = noise. No issues there. It feels.. fine. Again, not a stone guy and I tend to favor hard stones so feedback isn’t something I normally worry about. It’s hard, and it cuts fast so it isn’t particularly forgiving about your angles. I would probably recommend an angle guide due to the speed of the stone.
Regarding the speed. This thing is WILD. 4 strokes per side and the microchips on the FKM were GONE. 5-10 seconds of focusing on one side put a redicuous burr on the FKM. This thing eats moderate hardness stainless alive. You could probably store a carbon knife near it and come back to it being self sharpened.
The scratch pattern seems a little erratic. Could just be me, but there’s a decently consistent pattern which doesn’t seem to bad then occasional spots that seem a bit more aggressive. Not one to care about scratches on a knife personally, but just for extra information.
I wish I took photos before, but I was within 1-2 minutes visibly change the choil of the FKM. This thing is REMARKABLE for thinning.
Swarf floats free, no issues seen on the medium hardness stainless FKM.
Only did a couple strokes of the Walmart special. As you could expect, it had no issues and wasn’t worth continuing because it was more of the FKM but even easier due to the lower HRC.
The 10V took a bit longer, but it came off with the smoothest edge and is probably my favorite result.
The D3V was between the 10V and the FKM, a slightly toothier finish that came about in about half the time.
I noticed on the higher vanadium steels in particular, dealing with the burr was a bit more pleasant. On the aus-8 I spent more time refining the apex than I did the initial setting of it, since even a half stroke too long was enough to create a new bevel. On the higher end steels, since it took a bit more to cut the steel you had some more wiggle room. For someone who’s a better sharpener this may not be a problem.
I also noticed on all the cases, coming off the coarse, the apex seems to be well formed. No light reflection, no detectable burr to the naked eye or the fingers. It’s lacking the ability to nail bite, but seems to push cut paper fine. Frankly I think these stones are above my experience level. I’ll move on to the medium stone for more refinement (the cardinal sin I know) as I could probably grind these knives to nothing on this stone chasing that edge. The high hardness and insane speed definitely makes for a high skill stone that’s frankly beyond me.
Medium:
The medium is a much more familiar experience to the touch. Closer to maybe the shapton 1k to the finger tips, but maybe a touch smoother.
God I love this stone. It feels both much more comfortable, and much more forgiving to use. Much closer to the normal abrasives I’m used to, it’s much faster than them while not being so fast that a single stroke ruins the edge.
The sound is much more pleasant to the ears. Less scratchy due to the smoother surface.
Stone seems thirstier than the coarse. The coarse had no issues with water, the medium is needing a refresh every 10 or 20 strokes.
I started off with the Walmart special this time. It left some rather amusing distinct lines of swarf, one stroke up each side and there was immediate refinement. 20-30, and the edge was nail biting.
The FKM took a similar route. From not nail biting and roughly cutting paper on the coarse, to 20-30 strokes on the medium and it’s shaving arm hair. This stone is incredible. With the coarse I was able to thin it nicely and add some convexity (ok that was accidental), the medium added a lovely edge.
The D3V and the 10V, took longer but still were finished in under a few minutes to get to shaving sharp.
The coarse made me think that diamond stones aren’t for me due to the issues getting the edge settled. Combined with the medium, I’m now convinced I need a pair. The speed of the coarse for heavy lifting and how quickly the medium gets you to a gorgeous edge and how creamy it feels under the stone is mind blowing. It was also shocking how quickly the medium ground even the high carbide steels. Like it was barely different than the stainless pieces. Visible swarf with every stroke and a handful of strokes to start a bevel.
Dr knives mentioned having a harder formulation he was thinking of adding to the pass around. I’ll see if he wants me to hang onto these for a little longer and send them with the new stone or if he’s going to send the new stone next person and I should get these in the mail.
Current testing knives: Fujiwara FKM; my folks kitchen knife. Thinner sporadically, heavily used, with light microchipping along length and the edge now failing to bite nails. I believe these guys are aus-8??
Walmart mystery special stainless. God knows what it’s made of. Lightly thinned previously, not as heavily used thanks to the FKM (huzzah!), edge is unsurprisingly no longer sharp.
Kizer sheepdog 10V. Previously sharpened on the lansky. Edge is on the cusp of being alive, but has lost its bite. Will likely only need the medium but it’ll see both stones for testing.
Carothers UF2 in D3V steel/heat treat. It has some previous damage to the steel I’m not looking to remove entirely, but it’s also missing an edge which I’ll be putting on it.
Waiting to get home, have S110V and CTS-XHP waiting on it, potentially some 15V as well.
Per Dr. Knives recommendations, using water as lubricant and light pressure.
Coarse stone:
I don’t do enough wood working to know how 400 grit feels. Stone is definitely fairly toothy to the finger though. Surface texture isn’t really equivalent to anything I’ve used before, I assume due to the diamonds actually having some prominence where other abrasive materials frequently get worn down. Closest thing in feel are the diamond rods from the Lansky turnbox, but a bit finer.
It’s a very loud piece as well, which I think is common to any vitrified stone and most diamond plates from what I’ve read. Lot of abrasion + very hard surface = noise. No issues there. It feels.. fine. Again, not a stone guy and I tend to favor hard stones so feedback isn’t something I normally worry about. It’s hard, and it cuts fast so it isn’t particularly forgiving about your angles. I would probably recommend an angle guide due to the speed of the stone.
Regarding the speed. This thing is WILD. 4 strokes per side and the microchips on the FKM were GONE. 5-10 seconds of focusing on one side put a redicuous burr on the FKM. This thing eats moderate hardness stainless alive. You could probably store a carbon knife near it and come back to it being self sharpened.
The scratch pattern seems a little erratic. Could just be me, but there’s a decently consistent pattern which doesn’t seem to bad then occasional spots that seem a bit more aggressive. Not one to care about scratches on a knife personally, but just for extra information.
I wish I took photos before, but I was within 1-2 minutes visibly change the choil of the FKM. This thing is REMARKABLE for thinning.
Swarf floats free, no issues seen on the medium hardness stainless FKM.
Only did a couple strokes of the Walmart special. As you could expect, it had no issues and wasn’t worth continuing because it was more of the FKM but even easier due to the lower HRC.
The 10V took a bit longer, but it came off with the smoothest edge and is probably my favorite result.
The D3V was between the 10V and the FKM, a slightly toothier finish that came about in about half the time.
I noticed on the higher vanadium steels in particular, dealing with the burr was a bit more pleasant. On the aus-8 I spent more time refining the apex than I did the initial setting of it, since even a half stroke too long was enough to create a new bevel. On the higher end steels, since it took a bit more to cut the steel you had some more wiggle room. For someone who’s a better sharpener this may not be a problem.
I also noticed on all the cases, coming off the coarse, the apex seems to be well formed. No light reflection, no detectable burr to the naked eye or the fingers. It’s lacking the ability to nail bite, but seems to push cut paper fine. Frankly I think these stones are above my experience level. I’ll move on to the medium stone for more refinement (the cardinal sin I know) as I could probably grind these knives to nothing on this stone chasing that edge. The high hardness and insane speed definitely makes for a high skill stone that’s frankly beyond me.
Medium:
The medium is a much more familiar experience to the touch. Closer to maybe the shapton 1k to the finger tips, but maybe a touch smoother.
God I love this stone. It feels both much more comfortable, and much more forgiving to use. Much closer to the normal abrasives I’m used to, it’s much faster than them while not being so fast that a single stroke ruins the edge.
The sound is much more pleasant to the ears. Less scratchy due to the smoother surface.
Stone seems thirstier than the coarse. The coarse had no issues with water, the medium is needing a refresh every 10 or 20 strokes.
I started off with the Walmart special this time. It left some rather amusing distinct lines of swarf, one stroke up each side and there was immediate refinement. 20-30, and the edge was nail biting.
The FKM took a similar route. From not nail biting and roughly cutting paper on the coarse, to 20-30 strokes on the medium and it’s shaving arm hair. This stone is incredible. With the coarse I was able to thin it nicely and add some convexity (ok that was accidental), the medium added a lovely edge.
The D3V and the 10V, took longer but still were finished in under a few minutes to get to shaving sharp.
The coarse made me think that diamond stones aren’t for me due to the issues getting the edge settled. Combined with the medium, I’m now convinced I need a pair. The speed of the coarse for heavy lifting and how quickly the medium gets you to a gorgeous edge and how creamy it feels under the stone is mind blowing. It was also shocking how quickly the medium ground even the high carbide steels. Like it was barely different than the stainless pieces. Visible swarf with every stroke and a handful of strokes to start a bevel.
Dr knives mentioned having a harder formulation he was thinking of adding to the pass around. I’ll see if he wants me to hang onto these for a little longer and send them with the new stone or if he’s going to send the new stone next person and I should get these in the mail.
Attachments
Great writeup, I’m super exited to try a vitrified stone.
who has the rocks now, and whens the next write up?
Been in contact with the next person in line, they’re unavailable to receive them for another week, so I’m hanging onto them and shipping them this weekend. In the interim I’ll do more testing with S110V, XHP and see what else I can find to feed the diamonds.
Alright ya’ll, one more round of testing before they go out in the morning mail.
Up today:
1) Enzo HD prep knife. The better half uses this quite a bit. Vg10 on the softer side which is still chippy, worst of both worlds really. Needs some light thinning, microchip removal, sharpening.
The issues on the softer stainlesses, weren’t present coming off the coarse stone here. It was a great match for the vg10. It ate the steel comically fast (under a minute on one side left a comically large burr). No more than 2 minutes total for the job, and the edge was left to where I’d say it passes the 3 finger test while still having an incredibly aggressive edge. I tend to incrementally thin, and it passed that test with flying colors.
Medium was an even better experience. The final edge is happy to cut circles in paper, but it’s retaining that extreme coarseness from the previous stone. AThe
2) Spyderco/phil Wilson skinner. Believe this guy is in aus-8 or equivalent. Not sure of the hardness but it’s pretty soft based on its miserable edge retention. Think victorinox levels. Needs a new edge.
Started it on the coarse, and I think I’m finding while the coarse stone annihilates soft steels, I find myself unable to get a decent bevel on them in ways I don’t struggle with synthetic stones. Once I moved to the medium, it did eventually get there.
3) Carothers UF2 in D3V. Same as prior testing, got used pretty heavily for food prep at the in-laws so it’s getting light touch up.
Medium touch up was a breeze. Most of the edge was still intact. The tip had just worn down from impact with a hard plastic cutting board when I diced 6 lbs of mirepoix.
5) spyderco Slysz Bowie in XHP. It’ll be seeing the medium stone today.
Under 10 strokes on the medium brought it back to life. A master piece stone for a master piece production knife.
7) Drop Gavko nurse in I believe S35VN. Medium stone as well. I tend to use my folders fairly lightly so it’s generally abrasion that wears down the edge rather than any significant rolling.
Factory bevel was beefy, took a bit longer than the other folders but once it started developing a burr it went extremely quickly, 10 strokes per side at that point.
8) Takamura chromax. More food for the medium. Edge is in decent shape, just needs a refresh.
4 strokes per side. 4 strokes per side to take an ok edge and turn it into a great edge.
9) Spyderco southard in 204P. Similar to the folders, bevel is in good shape but needs a fresh edge.
Medium set a delicious edge. This and the Bowie combined took under 2 minutes, including drying the knives and put torn them aside.
10) Milan petty. Not sure what the steel is, decently hard though since the edge is pretty thin yet it’s held up quite well. No major damage to remove.
The steel in this bad boy feels surprisingly wear resistant. Took longer than the vg10 in the Enzo. By longer, I mean a minute instead of 30 seconds.
11) Catcheside honesuke in C105. This guy sees a lot of use, so it’s getting a refresh
Knife was nearly sharp, burr started in 6-7 strokes on the medium.
12) Markin in his 52100 equivalent. Probably going to give it a touch of thinning since it gets used quite often and touched up frequently
Easy touch up, if the stones were smaller it’d make a great replacement for the transparent ark pocket stone I use.
13) And the star of the hour, the rahven British compliant blunt nose chef knife. My folks have had this for a few years, it’s dulled, microchippped, maybe even macrochipped. The coarse stone should be an interesting test for it.
This was kind of shocking. I knew diamonds were amazing, I didn’t know they were this amazing. About 15-20 minutes of light pressure on the coarse stone removed the bulk of the chipping, and started turning the tip into a more useful shape. I doubted they would have any significant impact on this stuff, if memory serves from the creators YouTube videos they’re somewhere around 70 HRC. It worked on it, faster then I bet a synthetic stone could do the same to a victorinox.
Holy crap the medium stone, it was under 2 minutes to turn that initial bevel off the coarse into something that passes the three finger test.
Summing up:
Tried to give it a little bit of everything, from pocket knife supersteels, to softer stainless and some carbons common on kitchen knives. The ceramic was a bonus, which really shows what these things are capable of.
These stones are freaking incredible. Ceramic knives are what common knife community knowledge to be not worth sharpening to the point of being considered unsharpenable. This one took one that was blunted and microchipped to hell, and gave it a better edge than it came from the factory with. Words don’t do justice for how impressed I am with them.
Packing them up for the next person to ship in the morning, but I am definitely sad to see them go.
Up today:
1) Enzo HD prep knife. The better half uses this quite a bit. Vg10 on the softer side which is still chippy, worst of both worlds really. Needs some light thinning, microchip removal, sharpening.
The issues on the softer stainlesses, weren’t present coming off the coarse stone here. It was a great match for the vg10. It ate the steel comically fast (under a minute on one side left a comically large burr). No more than 2 minutes total for the job, and the edge was left to where I’d say it passes the 3 finger test while still having an incredibly aggressive edge. I tend to incrementally thin, and it passed that test with flying colors.
Medium was an even better experience. The final edge is happy to cut circles in paper, but it’s retaining that extreme coarseness from the previous stone. AThe
2) Spyderco/phil Wilson skinner. Believe this guy is in aus-8 or equivalent. Not sure of the hardness but it’s pretty soft based on its miserable edge retention. Think victorinox levels. Needs a new edge.
Started it on the coarse, and I think I’m finding while the coarse stone annihilates soft steels, I find myself unable to get a decent bevel on them in ways I don’t struggle with synthetic stones. Once I moved to the medium, it did eventually get there.
3) Carothers UF2 in D3V. Same as prior testing, got used pretty heavily for food prep at the in-laws so it’s getting light touch up.
Medium touch up was a breeze. Most of the edge was still intact. The tip had just worn down from impact with a hard plastic cutting board when I diced 6 lbs of mirepoix.
5) spyderco Slysz Bowie in XHP. It’ll be seeing the medium stone today.
Under 10 strokes on the medium brought it back to life. A master piece stone for a master piece production knife.
7) Drop Gavko nurse in I believe S35VN. Medium stone as well. I tend to use my folders fairly lightly so it’s generally abrasion that wears down the edge rather than any significant rolling.
Factory bevel was beefy, took a bit longer than the other folders but once it started developing a burr it went extremely quickly, 10 strokes per side at that point.
8) Takamura chromax. More food for the medium. Edge is in decent shape, just needs a refresh.
4 strokes per side. 4 strokes per side to take an ok edge and turn it into a great edge.
9) Spyderco southard in 204P. Similar to the folders, bevel is in good shape but needs a fresh edge.
Medium set a delicious edge. This and the Bowie combined took under 2 minutes, including drying the knives and put torn them aside.
10) Milan petty. Not sure what the steel is, decently hard though since the edge is pretty thin yet it’s held up quite well. No major damage to remove.
The steel in this bad boy feels surprisingly wear resistant. Took longer than the vg10 in the Enzo. By longer, I mean a minute instead of 30 seconds.
11) Catcheside honesuke in C105. This guy sees a lot of use, so it’s getting a refresh
Knife was nearly sharp, burr started in 6-7 strokes on the medium.
12) Markin in his 52100 equivalent. Probably going to give it a touch of thinning since it gets used quite often and touched up frequently
Easy touch up, if the stones were smaller it’d make a great replacement for the transparent ark pocket stone I use.
13) And the star of the hour, the rahven British compliant blunt nose chef knife. My folks have had this for a few years, it’s dulled, microchippped, maybe even macrochipped. The coarse stone should be an interesting test for it.
This was kind of shocking. I knew diamonds were amazing, I didn’t know they were this amazing. About 15-20 minutes of light pressure on the coarse stone removed the bulk of the chipping, and started turning the tip into a more useful shape. I doubted they would have any significant impact on this stuff, if memory serves from the creators YouTube videos they’re somewhere around 70 HRC. It worked on it, faster then I bet a synthetic stone could do the same to a victorinox.
Holy crap the medium stone, it was under 2 minutes to turn that initial bevel off the coarse into something that passes the three finger test.
Summing up:
Tried to give it a little bit of everything, from pocket knife supersteels, to softer stainless and some carbons common on kitchen knives. The ceramic was a bonus, which really shows what these things are capable of.
These stones are freaking incredible. Ceramic knives are what common knife community knowledge to be not worth sharpening to the point of being considered unsharpenable. This one took one that was blunted and microchipped to hell, and gave it a better edge than it came from the factory with. Words don’t do justice for how impressed I am with them.
Packing them up for the next person to ship in the morning, but I am definitely sad to see them go.
Alright ya’ll, in the mail to the next lucky person. Very sad to see them go. Meanwhile I’m gonna go shave with the ceramic knife they sharpened.
Hi folks. I received the stones today. I don't have tons of stuff with me to test but I'll take a crack a sharpening some 10V and MagnaCut I have around and also do a comparison of thinning and polishing MagnaCut with this 400 Vs the BBB 400. I'm going to try to get them into the lab as well and take a few images of the structures too if I have some time.
Hi folks! Sorry for the delay @Dr. Knives sent me two more stones to play with and I wanted to compare them all together and send them off simultaneously. The stones I received are the original 400 and 3k (called "Soft 400" and "Soft 3k" going forward) as well as two new 400 grits, one with a higher binder content (called "HB") and one with a different binder (called "DB"). I am off at university now so I was only able to test on a couple of things, the first was a CPM MagnaCut Chef (63.7 Rc) which I had to thin and do some initial polishing on and the second is my everyday CPM 10V chef (64 Rc). The results are summarized below, I am happy to answer any questions. I will be comparing these stones primarily to the BBB 400 and 3K as though they are the same price but I'm pretty sure they aren't so take that into account.
Thinning\Polishing MagnaCut:
I'm not the greatest grinder out there so I tend to even out my grind and start the polish on the MC carbide-containing steels on my BBB 400 stone. The BBB 400 stone is extremely hard and doesn't really release any abrasive so it tends to glaze over after every 30-60 seconds (this requires it to be quickly refreshed with the included Nagura).
Soft 400
This thing is a thinning/polishing BEAST. While using it it clearly releases a lot more grit than the BBB 400 which leads to a fairly muddy-looking finish (fine for my purposes). It feels a bit coarser than the BBB 400 and cuts a bit faster, but most importantly it was nearly impossible to glaze. I was only able to get it to glaze with about a 1-minute hard thinning with the largest possible surface area of the blade in contact with the stone (something I usually avoid because it tends to glaze over stones quickly). Based on the amount of grit released I assume the stone would need to be lapped fairly frequently if you are doing a lot of thinning, which isn't necessarily ideal (but given how much faster it is I'd still consider it an improvement). That being said I will almost certainly be picking up one of these as a dedicated thinning stone, maybe in a thicker size if I can get it.
HB and DB
The HB and DB stones were harder than the soft 400, as expected this made them quite a bit easier to glaze. Both stones left a noticeably brighter finish than the soft 400 although I couldn't tell the difference between the two harder stones in terms of finish. Again compared to the BBB 400 it felt like the grit was coarser and I think both stones are still a bit softer than the BBB 400. In terms of grit released I couldn't tell a difference between the hardness of the HB and DB stones however, the DB stone sounded and felt harder to me. Overall for thinning, I think I still prefer these to the BBB 400 but they are less "life-altering" good than the Soft 400.
Sharpening CPM 10V:
For sharpening I only really tried to HB 400 and the Soft 3k. The HB 400 was very aggressive as you would expect and had good sharpening feedback (I'd say a little worse than the BBB 400). The soft 3k was also very aggressive, it felt to me almost more like a 2k stone but I'm not a huge sharpening connoisseur so take my thoughts on that with a grain of salt. It put a fair tooth edge on the blade quite quickly and I was pretty happy with it. The Soft 3k seems quite soft (for diamond vits), maybe a bit softer than the Soft 400, and has a bit of a dish in the middle that I don't have to tools to take out. Similarly to the BBB Vits, these stones feel a lot more like conventional stones to sharpen on while maintaining the benefits of the harder abrasive.
Summary and Recommendation
Soft 400: Life-changing thinning stone if you have to handle thinning a lot of MC carbide-containing steels
HB and DB 400: Perfectly competent diamond vits, a bit coarser and softer than the BBB 400
Soft 3k: a very aggressive 3k with hardness which seems similar to the hard end of conventional stones (you can work up a slurry).
Overall if these stones are priced in the <$150 range they blow pretty much anything else available in that range out of the water. Much higher than that and I would start considering them a value side grade from the BBB vits. I would love to get my hands on a 1k stone a touch harder than the Soft 400 as a secondary polishing stone. I would also probably recommend making the harder 3k stone as I don't feel like I get much benefit from the greater friability when just sharpening.
Thinning\Polishing MagnaCut:
I'm not the greatest grinder out there so I tend to even out my grind and start the polish on the MC carbide-containing steels on my BBB 400 stone. The BBB 400 stone is extremely hard and doesn't really release any abrasive so it tends to glaze over after every 30-60 seconds (this requires it to be quickly refreshed with the included Nagura).
Soft 400
This thing is a thinning/polishing BEAST. While using it it clearly releases a lot more grit than the BBB 400 which leads to a fairly muddy-looking finish (fine for my purposes). It feels a bit coarser than the BBB 400 and cuts a bit faster, but most importantly it was nearly impossible to glaze. I was only able to get it to glaze with about a 1-minute hard thinning with the largest possible surface area of the blade in contact with the stone (something I usually avoid because it tends to glaze over stones quickly). Based on the amount of grit released I assume the stone would need to be lapped fairly frequently if you are doing a lot of thinning, which isn't necessarily ideal (but given how much faster it is I'd still consider it an improvement). That being said I will almost certainly be picking up one of these as a dedicated thinning stone, maybe in a thicker size if I can get it.
HB and DB
The HB and DB stones were harder than the soft 400, as expected this made them quite a bit easier to glaze. Both stones left a noticeably brighter finish than the soft 400 although I couldn't tell the difference between the two harder stones in terms of finish. Again compared to the BBB 400 it felt like the grit was coarser and I think both stones are still a bit softer than the BBB 400. In terms of grit released I couldn't tell a difference between the hardness of the HB and DB stones however, the DB stone sounded and felt harder to me. Overall for thinning, I think I still prefer these to the BBB 400 but they are less "life-altering" good than the Soft 400.
Sharpening CPM 10V:
For sharpening I only really tried to HB 400 and the Soft 3k. The HB 400 was very aggressive as you would expect and had good sharpening feedback (I'd say a little worse than the BBB 400). The soft 3k was also very aggressive, it felt to me almost more like a 2k stone but I'm not a huge sharpening connoisseur so take my thoughts on that with a grain of salt. It put a fair tooth edge on the blade quite quickly and I was pretty happy with it. The Soft 3k seems quite soft (for diamond vits), maybe a bit softer than the Soft 400, and has a bit of a dish in the middle that I don't have to tools to take out. Similarly to the BBB Vits, these stones feel a lot more like conventional stones to sharpen on while maintaining the benefits of the harder abrasive.
Summary and Recommendation
Soft 400: Life-changing thinning stone if you have to handle thinning a lot of MC carbide-containing steels
HB and DB 400: Perfectly competent diamond vits, a bit coarser and softer than the BBB 400
Soft 3k: a very aggressive 3k with hardness which seems similar to the hard end of conventional stones (you can work up a slurry).
Overall if these stones are priced in the <$150 range they blow pretty much anything else available in that range out of the water. Much higher than that and I would start considering them a value side grade from the BBB vits. I would love to get my hands on a 1k stone a touch harder than the Soft 400 as a secondary polishing stone. I would also probably recommend making the harder 3k stone as I don't feel like I get much benefit from the greater friability when just sharpening.
Thank you for giving us the head to head comparison! For pricing, my 400 was 1200hkd and my 1k was 1000. So you can get out with a full set + shipping for about the same as 1 FSK stone.
I think your conclusion nails it and I agree with the $150 price point. That’s about 1.5x the coarsest Nanohone cost, and this one cuts much faster.
Byphy
By
Another great review for the 400. Weird how its not mentioned enough on these forums..
I have been using the Vitrified stones and have some comments. I received three 400 grit stones and a 3000 grit stone. The 400 are extra hard, soft, and different binder. I'll start with some initial comments on the 3000 grit stone.
I received it and it was pretty loaded up so I thought I would condition it. For my Venev resinoid stone I clean it with barkeepers friend or use a shapton glass 500 stone. Neither worked well on the 3000 grit diamond stone. @Dr. Knives suggests loose sic powder on glass but I don't have any and that isn't very convenient. I did not want to use a diamond lapping plate as I expected it to destroy my plate. I ended up using a shapton pro 220 grit stone. This cleaned the diamond stone but it also polished the SP220! Subsequently I didn't bother trying to clean it and just used it. Suggestion #1 is to make these easier to maintain, tweek the formulation or identify a nagura for maintenance cleaning. I didn’t have issues with the 400 grit stones.
The 3000 grit put a good working edge on knives I tried. It also had good feedback and feel, much better than my venev stone. To my surprise if you use heavy pressure it can get stuff done quickly. I grabbed some dull crap stainless paring knives that bounce around in a drawer ($10 knives) and sharpened them in about 2 minutes on just the 3000. Normally I would have used a SG500 on these.
The 3000 is not a splash and go stone. It actually soaked up water for several minutes. Waiting for it to soak is helpful to prevent buildup on its surface. I would not call this vitrified if it absorbs water. It seems ceramic diamond might be a better name than vitrified as the latter means fully fused with minimal water absorption when used with ceramics. Of the other stones, only the hard 400grit stone was splash and go, the others absorbed water to varying degrees. Suggestion #2 is to make these splash and go. The 3000 is perfect for touching up an edge and I'm just not interested in waiting for it to soak.
more comments to come.
I received it and it was pretty loaded up so I thought I would condition it. For my Venev resinoid stone I clean it with barkeepers friend or use a shapton glass 500 stone. Neither worked well on the 3000 grit diamond stone. @Dr. Knives suggests loose sic powder on glass but I don't have any and that isn't very convenient. I did not want to use a diamond lapping plate as I expected it to destroy my plate. I ended up using a shapton pro 220 grit stone. This cleaned the diamond stone but it also polished the SP220! Subsequently I didn't bother trying to clean it and just used it. Suggestion #1 is to make these easier to maintain, tweek the formulation or identify a nagura for maintenance cleaning. I didn’t have issues with the 400 grit stones.
The 3000 grit put a good working edge on knives I tried. It also had good feedback and feel, much better than my venev stone. To my surprise if you use heavy pressure it can get stuff done quickly. I grabbed some dull crap stainless paring knives that bounce around in a drawer ($10 knives) and sharpened them in about 2 minutes on just the 3000. Normally I would have used a SG500 on these.
The 3000 is not a splash and go stone. It actually soaked up water for several minutes. Waiting for it to soak is helpful to prevent buildup on its surface. I would not call this vitrified if it absorbs water. It seems ceramic diamond might be a better name than vitrified as the latter means fully fused with minimal water absorption when used with ceramics. Of the other stones, only the hard 400grit stone was splash and go, the others absorbed water to varying degrees. Suggestion #2 is to make these splash and go. The 3000 is perfect for touching up an edge and I'm just not interested in waiting for it to soak.
more comments to come.
Vitrifieds do require soaking. Super Vitrifieds do not.
