Free Hand Sharpening: Mirror Polish with Diamonds and Ceramic

[@ToTehThird]

This is one of the best sharpening videos i've seen! Great stuff. Subbed!

[@abnergaldos8695]

I'm still learning, thanks for the video

[@jdavis882]

Thanks Ben. That means a lot. Happy sharpening!

[@jdavis882]

In my experience all of the EF stones look like that to some extent. They clean up with use, but when you first get them they are very jagged and "dirty" feeling. It bugs me too. That's one reason I don't like the DMT EFs.

[@Duglitas]

Awsome video man! Thanks

[@103959770979]

The bump went away for the DMT extra fine? or you contacted DMT?

[@HI_grade]

Thanks man for all your sharpening videos helped out alot

[@81ghale]

Thank you for putting all of your sharpening videos together in a playlist! I watched one of the vids you did where you said the 6" diasharp dmt stones were the better value over the 8", so I'm planning on picking up the kit at sharpening supplies site with 2 double sided stones (Xc, c, f, xf). I had planned on picking up the kme system, but I'd love to have at least a semi complete freehand setup. I can get a workable edge freehand, but I want to get good at it. I just picked up a PM2 in m390. In your opinion, will the 6" stones give me (a novice) enough real estate for the PM2? Also, do you feel the xf needs another high grit stone after it before going to a strop? I'd like a setup I could take to a refined and polished edge if I feel like it, or just stop at the xf dmt for a toothy working edge. Thank you for any recommendations you might have, and all your help and videos!

[@TheMrjogas]

Getting mine DMS on Monday hope no bumps

[@victorinoxfan]

Do you think those smaller dual DMT stones would work for lapping a waterstones? It looks very good. I need to pick one up to even out my japanese stones but this could kill two birds with one stone.

[@glytch5]

Thats what happens to me alot when I free hand, I get it very sharp and do everything right, but there is always a couple spots that catch paper wrong, and the more I try to get rid of what I think is burr, the worse the edge gets. i would love to know exactly how the edge is right behind the point too. I love free handing, and I used to be good at it, but now days unless its a kitchen knife, I just use the Edgepro, perfect edge every time.

[@Sandbag1300]

Do you recommend an excellent book(s) on how to sharpen knives?

[@jdavis882]

@TheNeedyCat I doubt it would take an edge. The steel probably isn't heat treated, so it wouldn't be strong enough to form an apex. You could make some nice bevels, but since the steel isn't strong it wouldn't hold the apex essentially making it butter knife dull again. Haha

[@xade7863]

Idk if your still responding to comments or not but what is the best way to clean Diamond stones and will they rust if there not completely dried off after using them with water?

[@jdavis882]

The diamond stones themselves won’t rust generally, but sometimes the steel dust leftover from sharpening will. When I’m done with my stones I wash them with soapy water and a toothbrush, and blot them dry with a towel.

[@Postghost]

this video was great but gave me about 400,000 goosebumps, oooooh, that god-forsaken scraping ...

[@jdavis882]

@victorinoxfan They will definitely work, but honestly lapping a stone with anything other than their XXC will ruin the stone. I tried to lap my 600 Chosera with my 8x3 coarse stone and it ruined it within minutes. Luckily DMT replaced it. :)

[@jonjonnu]

My dmt extra fine 6x2 also has a lot of bumps. I don't know why??

[@bamafaninky861]

I used to have dozens of cups from BamaBino's Pizza in 1991. They would deliver a large pizza with two drinks for $5!

[@catfishBG]

How do you clean your diamond stones ?

[@cdsbarnes2010]

The heel of your blade is getting very little sharpening using this technique. It comes of the stone right at the start of the stroke.

[@jdavis882]

The whole blade is rocking. Its traveling down the stone but it’s also rocking, in order to keep edge contact consistent through your strokes. 👍🏻

[@oogiesmuncher]

well I checked it mildly by cutting some regular printer paper but thats all.. not sure what else I could do to check it? And after both the coarse and the extra fine grits I am not able to push cut at all. All I can do is slice through the paper. I can understand the coarse grit causing that but what about the extra fine? Should it be able to push cut? You think I should work the blade more on the extra fine before moving on?

[@jdavis882]

@jambiyaSlaughter She actually likes it most of the time. :)

[@tayloralbrecht8362]

Do you prefer toothy or polished edge

[@jdavis882]

T.S. S I prefer a toothy edge that has been stropped a little. Still very aggressive but cuts smoothly.

[@GREY1551]

Great job as always! I may have to pick up some DMTs.

[@rukusbukus]

roll tide!

[@JCTheSniper15]

What do you do to clean your spyderco ceramic?

[@Mrmmjalldayreborn2]

barkeepers friend

[@CtznArcn]

Roll Tide!

[@cwrowe]

It's easy to sharpen to sharpen a knife

[@TheMaylo78]

i like you bro

[@TheMrjogas]

Damn auto correction,DMT's

[@gtwolfe1212]

ROLL TIDE

[@tvd-theremedy2515]

RTR #17 ;)

[@rickamburgey4967]

Nice vid, I subbed. I usually take one stone and rub it against the other to break them in, then a good washing.

[@bamafaninky861]

I hear support blade with your left hand but I only have use of right hand. Left hand is numb and only gross skills. Any suggestions? Great video.

[@jdavis882]

You can absolutely sharpen with just one arm! I honestly do that sometimes just because it’s comfortable. If you can sit down, and prop a stone up on something around chest high, you can absolutely use just your right hand to do a complete sharpening! Let me know if I can help in any way.

[@tayloralbrecht8362]

Is that just a 2x6"?

[@Eger118877]

Where did you get the ceramic ultra fine?

[@jdavis882]

I think I got this one at woodcraft if I remember correctly. But you can order them at almost any online knife store.

[@drumrboy80]

Have you tried DMT's diamond paste? That's what I finish with after using course, fine, extra extra fine stones. I have the 1 micron diamond paste and it removes pretty much all of the scratches on the edge giving you an ultra mirror polished edge..whittles hair with no effort at all

[@jdavis882]

@TheNeedyCat Oh, those would definitely be capable of taking an edge. I'm a college student, my flat ware came from wal-mart. Haha :)

[@stanfordcoffee]

Great Video on sharpening, very impressive! What do you use to remove the sharpie that's left on the upper part of the blade? Thanks

[@jdavis882]

@jonjonnu I have no clue but it is extremely annoying.

[@bamafaninky861]

Any suggestions if you don't have feeling or use of your left hand? RTR!

[@bamafaninky861]

If you get the urge to make more freehand videos it would be appreciated.

[@jdavis882]

@ludwell01 You're very welcome, thanks for the kind words. :)

[@jdavis882]

@ToTehThird Thanks for the kind words, and the sub. :)

[@zziipppoo]

@MPSecare Not JD, but a quick tip is to mark the edge with a sharpie just like you see "JD" doing (if you're not doing that already) so you easily can see that you are hitting the bevel correctly. If you are hitting the bevel correctly on the curve it should get sharp there too.

[@racerx32]

I thinks its cool that you leave a reminder about locking the wrist and using light pressure, because I have a course dmt stone and I'm waiting to buy some fine and extra fine stones. I was thinking 8000 and 12000, do you think that would be good, or to much of a jump between grits. Have a good one.

[@oogiesmuncher]

Could someone please help me? I just got the coarse and extra fine dmt stones in today and I sharpened up one of my kitchen knives and finished on an ultrafine spyderco stone. Well it got pretty sharp able to push cut phonebook paper. Then I tried to sharpen my spyderco tenacious and got much worse results somehow. Could someone help me find where I went wrong?!

[@fredde90210]

better then porn...(or close, hehehe) Tried to point out to Neptune that he was using way too much pressure but just pissed him off...in the end I was blocked hahahahaha.

[@fresca4008]

Do you have to use multiple stones? I am a total noob to sharpening and I was going to buy just an UF stone but then I hear you shouldn't do that and now I don't even know what to think...

[@B0scov]

Did you check your edge after every stone? I find that sometimes I mess up on certain stones but not others. If it wasn't sharp after the first stone, you can't expect the next one to be any sharper.

[@zydecosailor]

just got my first diamond stone... great video... patient well paced teaching .... thanks....

[@jdavis882]

@1dducks Lol you should hear the people I live around. I have a very mild accent compared to them. A lot of people tell me they like my southern drawl though, I dunno. Haha :)

[@CliffStamp]

Have you tried the next one, the EEF or UF?

[@MrVegaslive]

That's funny. You use the same stones and sharpening techniques as myself.

[@BartJPalmer]

Impressive how much you accomplished in such a short time! Thanks for sharing

[@carlocruz4814]

Hi jdavis882, do you have a video using the DMT W4EE ?

[@crf450rbulletdavid9]

I’m not name dropping but I’m gonna go ahead and say the name!

[@johnkennedy9078]

Did u buy drones separately or a pack? Any link?

[@iamtheav8r]

Are you liking the 8X3 or 6X2 DMTs the best?

[@PaulK390S90V]

I just started free hand after sharpening over 100 knives on my kme. I tried once before but didn't know what actually had to happen to sharpen a knife. Since now I know, I've been successful on 3 kitchen knives and a hunting knife. What an accomplishment for myself! Lol. Very excited now. Anyways I will mostly be doing kitchen knives and bigger knives. Would you say the coarse dmt would fix chips and very dull knives no problem? I have a xc dmt and a coarse but they are fairly worn down as I used them to flatten my chosera stones for my kme. So I forgot how they bite when they are still going strong. I want to get the exact setup you have but in 8 in dmt stones. Would I be good with a coarse and a fine and then go to a find spyderco 8x2? Or should I get your set up. Or a coarse and fine dmt and a uf spyderco? I would really like your feedback I hope you answer comments. I have a strop that I made myself with the rough side loaded with flexcut gold which I absolutely love. I thought of getting a strop block but I have my own and can put any compound I want and have a rough and smooth side. What are your thoughts on the stones? What about the 8x2.65 in dmt intrupted stones with a coarse/fine on the dmt stone holder? Or do you like how you do it. I kind of would like the clearance off the table. Hope you can help...I'm about to start buying some things so I will try to wait lol. Hope to hear from you with all your thoughts

[@lungsun5644]

Hi Paul, you should check out “rough rooster knife sharpening” on KZbin. He has a lots of experience with dmt and spyderco UF as well as arkansas Stones. I think he is able to answer your question. He makes very good sharpening videos and he is very responsive to comments .

[@michaelshults7675]

Just curious, but why do you raise a burr with each particular grit? Why not just raise a burr one time then just refine with further grits in the progression? Don't take my comment wrong, as I said I am only curious, and I just figured that raising a burr with each stone would maybe be a waist of steel.

[@jdavis882]

I don’t actually raise a burr with each grit, now. I realized that it was unnecessary and wasted steel. I will now use the lower grits to almost apex the edge, but I don’t actually apex and form a burr till 1000 grit or over, now. It is absolutely a waste of steel and I encourage people NOT to raise a burr on each grit now, especially on lower grits like 400-500.

[@mattpaine3644]

Just started free hand sharpening and I am getting good results. However, I am unable to take some of my knives with tougher steels (s30v, zdp189 etc) onto high grit stones (6k +) with any benefits. it seems as though I am polishing the bevel but its not effecting the way the knife cuts and in some cases almost feels to damage hinder the cutting performance. I take my time and try to make sure that I am holding the same angle through all my stones. Is there a possibility that I am over buffing the edge or do some steels just not take well to higher grit stones?

[@johnkennedy9078]

matt paine I'm on this video for the same question you have! Can you please tell me if you had any success with sharpening high end steel??

[@Hacker7763]

@stanfordcofee Rubbing alcohol

[@rsexton89]

RFT SON!!!

[@TikisofLA]

Do you have to flatten out your dmt stones after you use them to keep the stones even when sharpening?

[@calebgreen4150]

No... diamond and ceramic stones never need to be flattened.

[@perspicacity89]

Frist.

[@3681pokey]

What knife are you sharpening?

[@tvd-theremedy2515]

Looks like a Buck Vantage (it’s definitely a Buck)... 2 years later lol

[@morbidminister6669]

can anyone tell me if this will be a good sharpening system?...a DMT coarse stone followed by spyderco fine ceramic stone followed by stropping with green compound. I have a spyderco golden stone and also a spyderco double stuff. i keep the double stuff in my backpack to use on the go, but since ive started freehand sharpening i dont really see me using the preset angles on the golden stone anymore. lucky the golden stone has a wide enough surface to double as a freehand stone that i can continue to use. my plan is to get the DMT coarse and use that followed by the golden stone, which is a fine grit ceramic for bigger sharpening jobs, im just not sure if making such a big jump from coarse diamonds to fine ceramic will give me a good edge. any input will be much appreciated.

[@claytontidwell1374]

A coarse dmt diamond stone to a fine ceramic is possible but to show anything off the ceramic will take a bit more time so it's not a perfect method

[@wesleysprinkle7592]

So you feel like the hand sharpening with the stones you outlined in your previous video outperform in terms of sharpness systems like the hapstone r1? I ask because I am going to go one way or the other with a purchase for taking care of my knives. I am aware that the ability to hold the right angles are the crucial part of the outcome which I feel I can do. So your input will help my decision. Thanks

[@jdavis882]

Hand sharpening CAN get just as sharp as guided systems, but it takes a lot of skill. If you’re starting out, I say get the Hapstone.

[@wesleysprinkle7592]

HA nope too late went with the stones you showed in your video. I'm going to hone my skills. I think it will be more rewarding in the long run. Thanks for all the good info on your videos. @@jdavis882

[@jdavis882]

Wesley Sprinkle to be honest you went the fun way! Have fun brother and feel free to ask if you need help.

[@wesleysprinkle7592]

@@jdavis882 Are you on FB? If so let me know your FB name. I just got the 306uf and strop in. Holy cow my benchmade is now a razor. The edge was not far out of whack so it didnt need too much work but way sharper than factory.

[@jdavis882]

Wesley Sprinkle i don’t really use Facebook but I’m boostflux on Instagram.

[@jamesmiller360]

Nice video. That Buck Vantage is my current EDC. Love the knife and I'm using your basic freehand kit to keep it sharp. Would really like to see you do some new sharpening videos. I learned to free hand by watching you and DeanO. Thanks for the great information.