Diamond Machining Technology CS2 12-Inch Ceramic Steel
by DMT
|
List Price: Our Price: $31.51 You Save: $16.50 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Tools See more product details |
|---|
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Diamond Machining Technology CS2 12-Inch Ceramic Steel
Customer Review: Sharpening for Dummies
Summary: 5 Stars
No offense, but if you are experienced in creating and maintaining a sharp cutting edge, you don't need this review. Just buy it!
If not, here is what you need to know. This tool doesn't sharpen, it hones. And if you hone your knives regularly, you may never, or rarely, need to sharpen them.
Sharpening is the process of creating a new cutting edge; honing refines or restores that edge. In my opinion the steel and diamond tools are sharpening tools and not very good ones. Graduated sharpening stones, or a professional, do a much better job.
I have a set of Katana knives which is over five years old and, with one exception, have never been sharpened, but are all razor sharp. They are honed regularly with a DMT ceramic rod. (The one exception arose as a result of some ill-advised hacking at a unseen bone, which produced large nicks.)
Try this. Take an ordinary butter knife and hold it facing away from you so that a light source will reflect off the blade. (I use the light in a range hood.) As you rotate the knife so that the light reflects off the edge you will see a broad band of reflected light. Dull knife, no cutting edge.
Now do the same thing with your sharpest knife. If it is sharp, you will not be able to see the edge. If you see localized bright spots, it needs to be honed, and this tool is what I would use. If it has large nicks, or it looks like the butter knife, it needs sharpening. Here, a diamond rod may work if nicks are not too large, but it feels to me like a crude way to do something which should be rather precise.
I chose this product primarily for the 12" length, which is helpful for longer knives. After several years of use and occasional cleaning to remove steel dust I am still very happy with its performance.
Customer Review: Get an Idahone instead
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not as crazy about the DMT ceramic hone as I thought I'd be. With its published specs of 7 micron/2200 mesh I expected it to be finer and easier on my blades than it is. I sharpen my knives with water stones (I cheat and use an Edge Pro) so I don't want my hone to take off a lot of metal; I just want it to realign the edges between sharpening.
I have an Idahone 8" and am very pleased with it, but picked this up because I needed a 12". The Idahone is supposed to be around 1200 but does a much nicer job on my already sharp Japanese knives (58 HRC and up). On these very hard knives the DMT actually seems counter productive. However it works just fine on my wife's softer German knives (as does the Idahone).
Given that the Idahone is right around the same price and is available with the option of a nicer wood handle, I'd recommend that anyone in search of a good ceramic hone at this price point go with that one instead. As of this writing it's not available on Amazon, but it's not hard to find on the net.
Customer Review: Sharpened my knives
Summary: 4 Stars
Knives get dull with use. This fella keeps em sharp so I don't have to push hard enough to cause an accident.
My only beef is that the coating on the ceramics, whatever that may be, is white. The knives turn the color either dark, near black, or silver. It seems that the area becomes smoother too. Perhaps this is embeded metal on the sharpener or it is removed sharpening agent, white stuff. I don't know, but it seems to continue to sharpen even with color change.
I only use it for my personal knives, which started out sharp. I have tried it on my parents decades old knives, but was unable to achieve a uniform sharp edge in a short period of time. However, it did sharpen them, but I grew impatient and thought they should have more metal removed faster to get a uniform layer.
I think this sharpener is priced fair or just a little high for its quality.
Customer Review: Diamond Machining Technology 12-Inch Ceramic Steel Does The Job
Summary: 5 Stars
The Diamond Machining Technology 12-Inch Ceramic Steel works quite well to maintain an edge on all of my kitchen knives and wood carving knives and gouges once an edge has been established. The edge it leaves is a smooth, polished surface which reduces the need for frequent abrasive sharpenings.
Initially the somewhat lower the typical price was the motivating factor for this purchase but now that I have used it I am quite impressed by its quality construction, its ease of use and the fine edge it puts on my blades. It did require some use to remove a powdery white residue from its firing but I have not found any other inconveniences with this cermac "steel." I like it.
Customer Review: A good value for the $
Summary: 4 Stars
The ceramic sharpening steel is just the right size if you have a 10" or 12" knife as well as anything smaller. It has a well designed hand guard for safety. It does seem a little coarser than I would have liked and the ceramic is actually a thin coating over an aluminum rod(beware of chipping it). It is deceptively sturdy and has held up quite well for several weeks of use now. Over all it makes short work of reshaping the edge of a dull knife and will take the edge to a good, sharp, working edge, but I find a smoother, polished edge lasts much longer. Overall I am pleased and feel it is an effective "sharpening rod" and a good value for the price.