DE-250 Diamond Stone Purchased

[Boski51]

I broke down and picked up the Extra Fine Diamond stone.  My main reason for making the purchase was I wanted to remove the stone grading from my process (as much as possible).  My thought was that will help eliminate a variable in the sharpening process. Now it may be a minor variable, but that was one of my justifications.  I sharpen mostly woodworking hand tools so limiting variables for my application may not be as critical as for knife sharpening.

I got home and promptly read the instructions and installed the new stone.  I sharpened 3 of my utility chisels to help ease into the new stone/break-in period.  When they say that the stone will be a little aggressive at metal removal-that is very true.  I am glad I took it easy and checked my progress often.  Its funny how out of square I was with those chisels when I was first learning to use my Tormek....

The scratch pattern from the stone is "fine" but not even close to a polish and I didn't expect it to be.  I did expect however that I would get a nice polish after using the honing wheel and that wasn't the case of me.  There is still a fairly distinct scratch pattern in my chisels-maybe more than the stock stone graded fine.  I was surprised that was the outcome.  Now that may change as the wheel gets broken in, but not after the little bit of work i did today.

I would say that I am happy with the stone's results but I still have a bit of learning to do with it.  If I can figure out how to post pictures on the forum, I will show you what I am talking about.

[Ken S]

Hi, Andy.

Most of my limited experience with the diamond wheels has been with the DC-250 coarse (360 grit) wheel (reshaping a turning skew chisel). The diamond wheels definitely cut differently than the Original wheels. I hesitate to say "better", but  definitely different. The first thing I noticed was that the grains of the diamond wheels stay sharp whereas with the Original grinding wheels, the surface must be refreshed.

With more than one chisel you can do comparisons. You should always use light grinding pressure with diamond wheels. Try ending up with extremely light pressure with one chisel. Examine the scratches to see if they are more shallow.

My other suggestion is to try longer use with the leather honing wheel. I tried sharpening chisels using just an 80 grit CBN wheel. The scratch pattern was distinct! However, going directly to the leather honing wheel with PA-70 for an extended time, the edge was at least acceptably sharp. The BESS sharpness reading were not far apart. I would certainly not recommend this simple "two step" method over the traditional Tormek three step routine for general use.

I hope forum members will post their experiences with the new diamond wheels. Up to this point, information from Sweden has been very lean. We need to learn more; that knowledge will most probably come from our shared experiences.

Ken

[Boski51]

Now that I have a little more time today, I will do just that-spend more time polishing the edge and see if I can work toward a little better polish.

Thanks as always Ken!

[cbwx34]

...
The scratch pattern from the stone is "fine" but not even close to a polish and I didn't expect it to be.  I did expect however that I would get a nice polish after using the honing wheel and that wasn't the case of me.  There is still a fairly distinct scratch pattern in my chisels-maybe more than the stock stone graded fine.  I was surprised that was the outcome.  Now that may change as the wheel gets broken in, but not after the little bit of work i did today.

I would say that I am happy with the stone's results but I still have a bit of learning to do with it.  If I can figure out how to post pictures on the forum, I will show you what I am talking about.

One thing you might try... make sure there's a bit of "fresh" compound on the wheel.  The compound breaks down in use, so a bit that hasn't broken down yet might help.

For pictures, click on "Attachments and other options" and you can select pictures from your files.  (You may have to reduce/resize... there is a 256KB limit).

[Ken S]

The diamond wheels represent a big step outside the Tormek tradition. Tormek was a simple, one grinding wheel for everything machine from the start. In fact, the original Tormek had neither a leather honing wheel or a built in motor. (It used an electric drill.)

The original Tormek grinding wheel was a natural stone. It was finer grit than the present SG (SuperGrind) wheel. I believe the stone grader originated trying to match the coarser SG aluminum oxide wheel to the natural finer grit stone.

When I first started corresponding with Tormek about grinding wheels, anything except the Tormek Trinity was almost taboo. This attitude gradually softened over the years. One argument which continues to make sense to me is that the SG can function as several different grits depending on how it is graded with the stone grader.

With the advent of the diamond wheels, we have single grit wheels. The diamond durability, fast cutting, and constant diameter are very nice features. The price for these marvelous new festures is eventually buying three expensive wheels. Not everyone will need all three wheels. In fact, many of us will happily continue wuth just the Original SG.

It is a changing world for sharpening. I am glad that both Tormek and this forum are evolving.

Ken

[Boski51]

Here are some pics of the scratch pattern off the Extra Fine wheel and leather wheel. Spending more time on the leather with fresh honing compound did in fact help.  The resulting edge worked wonderfully. 

[cbwx34]

Here are some pics of the scratch pattern off the Extra Fine wheel and leather wheel. Spending more time on the leather with fresh honing compound did in fact help.  The resulting edge worked wonderfully.

Glad it helped... I haven't used the Tormek diamond wheels much, but other diamond stones tell me that these wheels will probably continue to get a bit finer with use.