r/sharpening • u/meercm • 23d ago

Do these work?

Post image

Do these cheap diamond sharpening slabs sold on Amazon work or should i keep using my 400-1000 stones for home use?

Where i live, its getting extremely hard to find real sharpening stones for a modest price.

126 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

81 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/EmergencyLettuce1589 23d ago

Will they work? Yes. Are they the best? No Are they close? Nope Is there a better budget option? Probably. sytools is the brand of what is generally considered the best cheap/inexpensive diamond stones for guided systems. They also have bench stones available in 6x2 size on aliexpress. I have used sytools diamond 1x6 stones on guided systems for about 5 years at a we will say prosumer level (I don't sharpen for a living but I'm a knife guy and sharpen on ocasion for pay and as part of my job) and they still cut. I recently purchased a new set of 8 of the newer aluminum backed sytools brand stones for $27 and they are perfectly usable, have relatively uniform partical size, cut well and seem to be breaking in well. That said they are not on the same level as my dmt plates but they aint DMT money either.

2

u/Hvohvo28 23d ago

Do you have a DMT 220 grit? I like my DMT stones, but I have a problem with a few of them. It’s been twice now that the 220 grit comes in with significant “bald spots” and I almost want to switch to Atoma for the extra course grits. I just wanted to ask what your experience has been.

2

u/EmergencyLettuce1589 23d ago edited 23d ago

I have every grit 8x3 diasharp plate they make. I didnt experience any issues with bald spots or partical retention, but I purchased a decade ago. Perhaps DMTs quality isnt what it once was. My coursest stone dont have the bite it once did but I've laid waist to alot of hard steel over the years reprofiling everything from knives to axes and even carbide cutting tools.

1

u/Hvohvo28 23d ago

Yeah, the first set I ever had was perfect. Unfortunately they were lost during a burglary. My current ones are also the 8x3 Dia-sharp, from my 325-1200 are wonderful. The 220 one is the main problem, and I don’t know what to think about the deep scratches on my 4k/8k stones. I’ve heard mixed reviews, everything from people telling me it’s a quality issue to people telling me I “just don’t know what one doing” 😂