DMT W6FP 6-Inch Diamond Tabletop Whetstone, Fine Grit

I sharpen my kitchen cutleries by hand using this DMT diamond stone and a Japanese combination water stone: Woodstock D1130 1000 Grit and 6000 Grit Japanese Waterstone. Despite this is called a "fine" grit stone, it is plenty aggressive to sharpen a typical kitchen knife. My friend has a chef's knife which had a broken tip (~1/4") and a chipped edge, and I was able to restore the tip and the edge by using this "fine" stone. The DMT diamond stones need a small amount of water during sharpening. It is to help prevent metal fines from sticking to the sharpening surface. In my opinion, water lubricant stones are superior to oil assisted stones for two reasons. First, it is easy to apply water and to clean up afterward. Second, water is less slippy than oil and therefore it is safer to sharpen a knife with wet hands than oiled hands. DMT makes interrupted surface and continuous surface diamond stones. This belongs to the former. For most applications, the interrupted surface is superior because it allows metal fines to fall into the slightly recessed area and remains out of the sharpening surface. This allows greater sharpening performance by eliminating the need to constantly washing and removing the metal fines from the surface. However, if your tools have very small blades, then they will get caught in the recessed area. You will need a continuous surface diamond stone for these small blade tools. I have upload a closeup customer picture of the diamond stone. The stone is 6" X 2", adequate for most kitchen knives. The receded red dot areas are 1/8" in diameter. In my experience, your blade needs to be at least 1/2" in length to comfortably take advantage of the interrupted surface.

I bought this DMT fine diamond stone for $35. I find this diamond stone to be very versatile. It cut fast and uniform, and yet gives you full control of the sharpening process unlike a grinding wheel. The DMT grinding surface is extremely flat, so I also use it to flatten my Japanese water stones. If you have never used a diamond stone, then you will be surprised how fast this stone can cut/grind. I certainly was. I have an aluminum oxide oil stone and I have to push my knives downward at the stone to sharpen them. Whereas, I simply slide my knives back and forth on this diamond stone. This saves time, energy and improve sharpening results. Frankly, it is probably safer too. Because the diamond stones cut faster than other stones, I like to suggest new users to check on their progress a bit more often and also apply less force downward at the whetstone.

Despite this DMT stone is advertised as fine grit, the grit size is 600 (25 microns) which is too coarse to be considered as a fine grit stone by the standard definition. Knife edges ground by this diamond stone are coarse and will need to be polished on finer stones.

Assuming you are into sharpening your knives or tools, I highly recommend this or one of the other diamond stones. You won't regret getting a DMT diamond stone.

*Updated on Dec 27 2009*
Yesterday, I noticed my Shun bread knife has two tiny but visible chips, not quiet sure where they come about. I put it on a 1000 grit water stone but seemed to take too long. I then put it on this diamond stone and it managed to grind out the chipped area. I then finished it on my 1000 and 6000 grit water stones. This DMT diamond stone is not only able to restore my friend's damaged budget knife, but it also worked for a VG-10 core Shun knife.Get more detail about DMT W6FP 6-Inch Diamond Tabletop Whetstone, Fine Grit.