Recommendation - Full Size Diamond Plate For Apexing

I will be using this to put the final apex on a Japanese nakiri style knife that I use daily in the kitchen. It will be plateau sharpened either with 1,000 grit stone or if necessary to use the higher grit diamond plates I would purchase something like a 320 & 3000 combo to bridge the gap.

The knife gets used (so far anyways) with a draw cut pushed away from the body to slice through vegetables. The highest I have taken the apex to is DMT Extra Fine or Fine. This has been used with a Diafold, but I would like to purchase a nice full size bench stone as the Diafold just is not ideal for a bigger blade.

I remember Cliff posting about problems he was having with certain higher grit DMT plates, I want to say it may have been Medium Extra Fine. Did you ever figure out what was going on or have it replaced? Did it just wear in to where it was not leaving the odd heavy grit scratching on the apex?

I was also looking at the Atoma 1200, which may be all I really need anyways. Anybody here using them currently? I also can't help but wonder if something like the Atoma 600 or DMT Fine may be better as it's more of a slice.

I am not doing ANY chopping type cutting with it, mainly just the weight of the knife when I draw it forward causes it to just fall almost effortlessly through the veggies. Thanks in advance!

Thanks in advance!

The issue with DMT is that at higher grits you get inconsistent behavior :

[www.cliffstamp.com]

In short, my mxf DMT was capable of producing a finish more coarse at times than the f dmt.

In contrast, the Atoma are perfectly consistent.

i used the DMT Green XF as my finishing in the kitchen. my main issue is not looking after them well and getting rust spots.. that kind of puts a damper on them.

my 6x2" size XF worked well enough for kitchen use.

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It's not Cliff, its Dr Stamp
#kebabstickcut, it's a thing - make it happen

YESH,
What grit are you looking for?

"I am still discussing issues of steels and performance at this stage." -- Cliff Stamp, May his memory be a blessing
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The 11.5x2.5 DMT I got a few months ago would be a solid choice, but note that the 600/Fine version I have would be possibly a bit too coarse for that work. You’ll probably notice a big drop in cutting performance if you try even a little bit of a push cut, but if you’re just using the weight of the knife combined with a draw, it would probably be pretty decent.

I use the Spyderco fine rods as my kitchen knife finish because I want a higher polish, even a Spyderco medium rod is too coarse for my preference.

YESH,
And what do you consider the start of full size? 6x2"? The EZE-Lap stones can be found sometimes for a lot less money than the DMT's, same with the Lansky diamond hones. They have combo stones, so you can get two grits.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2020 11:54PM by jasonstone20.

Actually, I'm really only looking between Atoma & DMT. I'd say full size is something like 8" x 3", standard bench stone size.

YESH,
Ok, the the EZE-Laps are about the same price.

"I am still discussing issues of steels and performance at this stage." -- Cliff Stamp, May his memory be a blessing
"Life is GOOD", -- Stefan_Wolf, May His Memory Be A Blessing
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Quote
CliffStamp
The issue with DMT is that at higher grits you get inconsistent behavior :

[www.cliffstamp.com]

In short, my mxf DMT was capable of producing a finish more coarse at times than the f dmt.

In contrast, the Atoma are perfectly consistent.

I am somewhat uncertain about what you mean for the MXF DMT. Was the finish uniformly more coarse than F DMT or simply have some coarse scratches mixed in with a mostly uniform higher grit 4000 type finish? Or was it just completely random in that it would switch from fine to coarse randomly without any idea why?

Upon further consideration, I do like the idea of the MXF DMT to give more push cutting ability as I've been experimenting using a bit of a light chopping approach w/ a forward slice somewhat mixed in that chopping motion to get the knife through cleanly. Wondering if I could expect the MXF apex to require very slight to no slice on that motion.

If that were the case and it still had a bit of slicing aggression, it sure sounds like a winner to me. I found reports here at the forum from Steel Drake? (not certain of name) also that the Atoma 1200 cuts much more coarse than it's grit indicates... he found his was more comparable with DMT F 600 grit in finish/cutting. Has your example been consistent with his findings?

Quote
YESH

I am somewhat uncertain about what you mean for the MXF DMT. Was the finish uniformly more coarse than F DMT or simply have some coarse scratches mixed in with a mostly uniform higher grit 4000 type finish? Or was it just completely random in that it would switch from fine to coarse randomly without any idea why?

The grit was inconsistent, they grit on the place was mainly mxf, but it also had grit that was more coarse than f, so the scratch pattern was most mxt, with random very coarse scratches. This does nothing in regards to sharpness significantly, but it means you can't get the polished bevels most people want, and since most people run them dry, they also had snagging issues.

However, it has been many years since I bought one, they might be more consistent now, so I would recommend a quick search/check.

Going by recent posts about the XXF plates I doubt it I know of two (which is not a lot) that recently bought one and had big diamonds on them.

And for the record I could not get the big diamonds off the plate they just stay there even after an hour or so of sharpening on it there are always random deep scratches that are easily visible without magnification on mine.