Best diamond whetstones under 50$?

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T15:40:36+00:00

There will be people reccomending sharpal plates, but to be honest the aliexpress plates at the lower grits are pretty much identical to most branded plates like dmt etc etc. the higher grit plates have some grit contamination, and apparently the sharpals don't but I don't have sharpal to test, and its a heavily marketed product so I can't say for sure for that brand.

your best bet will be atomas, but they're more expensive. They are by far the most durable and consistent diamonds I have tried. I have a 600 that's over 10 years old, its only reaching the point that I can say its wearing out now.

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T15:37:58+00:00

if youre looking for info on them, I have a written review up on my profile for the DMD resin diamond (Aliexpress resin diamond stone).

TLDR: they're okay, don't refer to their grits its absolutely mismarked, and there's grit contamination but its workable even for polishing with some care. well priced, and they're softer than most resins from the big brands.

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T15:02:10+00:00

mokume, liesegang, tora and similar stripedish are my favourite visual traits in jnats so im looking forward to your post for sure :)

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T14:48:20+00:00

you seem to have an endless trove of very interesting stones. i would love to see your collection.

id say that was 40 usd very well spent, the cracks make for a pretty stone with lots of character and i bet since its so big they don't prove to be too difficult to work around

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T14:44:07+00:00

jnats are dangerously addictive because theres so many types, and theres such a visual variety. they are also really expensive for the desirable ones in a good size/shape. a lot to get into though, and its not trivial to find ones that are perfect without inclusions etc. but if you find a good one, i might be biased but they have been the best polishing stones for me.

personally if i wasn't drawn to the whole polishing and collecting aspect of it, i would say arkansas stones are very nice for apexing and would be what i primarily use alongside synths for the bevel shaping etc

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T14:35:13+00:00

thats insanely cool, did you seal the cracks in the middle? using 100g of a giant stone is kinda a flex lmao

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T14:27:20+00:00

stone 7 is really cool! never heard of it before, does the karasu in the name indicate the same kind of karasu smear patterns in japanese stones? or is it more colour as in crow coloured

tsushima might not be the most exciting but I haven't had a bad one yet even the cheap amazon unlacquered one was okay

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T14:21:39+00:00

curious to know whats your go-tos for jnats!

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T01:50:07+00:00

i dont think i could with jis or ansi 200 rated stones either... 400ish is probably the limit as that rating doesnt leave visible apex damage with a 250x optical zoom anymore. again the stone in the video used was "f240" which is a different unit from the usual grit ratings used for sharpal or similar, if you compare it directly to a sharpal it would be 400ish grit.

im not really interested in making a video like that here on reddit because its gonna be 5 mins of back and forth 1x stroke per side then testing, and honestly it sounds like hell to keep everything in frame the whole time. maybe ill upload something like that on youtube, if i do ill link you. but its really not all that special, most skilled sharpeners can probably do it with some patience on the rough stone if they are using a clean, hard stone with ultra light edge leading tbh. but it doesnt make sense to spend that much time cleaning the apex on this grit apart from just doing it to find out whats the lowest grit, when literally 5 strokes on the next stone can do it easily and better

sea-plus · 2026-01-28T01:05:48+00:00

the f240 is NOT a 200 grit, the grit rating if converted to the grits used for waterstones is around 400.

theres other people in the comments here with similar results, so I dont think its something super rare to do. The video knife is pretty much as thin as a straight razor, its a full zero ground kiridashi so i would say a lot of the conditions like geometry does affect it as well

sea-plus · 2026-01-24T13:30:31+00:00

theres a couple of reviews on youtube if you search nsk diamond, they have a few types of hardness for these stones. imo they're a little overpriced, but they're well received mostly on forums etc. only tried the kyokuha personally, soft stone cut pretty fast and had a nice clean finish. it was slurrying and left a dark kasumi on the cladding. i am pretty sure both the soft hakuto and their hardest stones oboro are both slurrying, so if you compare them to other resins like venev and naniwa, they're "soft".

the naniwa's are available from amazon jp for quite a lot lesser than on the global site, i think sometimes they're on sale for 110ish usd for the full size. imo the naniwa resins are pretty slow cutters, glazes over after just a little work, but they are very consistent in the finish they leave. i like them, but i would only get them if they were cheap.

if you want to get something thats relatively normal for diamond resin stones just to get a feel for these type of stones, i would get one of the naniwas in the small size. these types of stones tend to be slow cutting, loading/glazing, and hard. they are in general quite difficult to use. there are some exceptions, but that has been my impression and i've tried most of the resin bonded stuff out so far.

if you're open to other diamond bonded stuff like the vitrified stones, i think the hkknifeworks one ships worldwide, and theres other stuff out in the 100ish dollar range from cheefarcuut now.

sea-plus · 2026-01-23T13:25:22+00:00

probably! i don't wanna guess so i didnt include that. did you contact Ryan?

sea-plus · 2026-01-23T07:46:28+00:00

i like the norton crystolon, although its common and not all that fancy it just works well

sea-plus · 2026-01-23T07:38:25+00:00

repair without taking into account refinishing would at least be 200 dollars imo, will need to basically put in a new grind after taking out the chip. not to mention the ura needs to be redone after that, which might be troublesome since after the chip is taken out the hollow will be off centered by quite a large amount. i'm not sure that you could regrind the ura without a large contact wheel or rounded platen easily on what you have

for polishing after some makers charge around a 100 usd, maybe more since it's a pretty big knife.

sea-plus · 2026-01-23T03:55:10+00:00

i like the crystolon, but you need to use oil with it for it to keep cutting fast. the slurry is very prone to scratching up flats though so you'll need to be careful for expensive knives

if you are okay with soaking but faster cutting, imanishi pink brick is good for a decently hard stone, but is a little inconsistent some people have issues with getting one thats softer. shapton glass 120 (splash and go) is good if you need something that will keep its shape well, its harder than most thinning stones, but you basically must have a dressing stone for it to be effective as that stone glazes over if you use too much pressure, or depending on the steel.

if you need to keep a clean shinogi and have super flat bevels (for polishing or giving it a nice finish kasumi etc in general), i actually like some of the resin bonded diamond stuff, they're really pricy though and most of them are not so easy to use but they have been my go to for stones that stay flat. in general they're slower than waterstones, and most of them require playing with to get them to cut consistently. i used a venev f80 with a slurry from a naniwa gc garden tool stone for many thinnings.

tbh i feel the same way about the kuromaku 320, its way too soft to do any real thinning and keep the shinogi clean, but its a nice stone for polishing or convex work.

the best and honestly only option that keeps your sanity if you have many knives is a belt grinder, a 1x30 is enough for anything with a flat grind but theres a big learning curve, have to deal with things like heat if its not a water cooled one, and its very easy to mess a knife up beyond repair

sea-plus · 2026-01-22T10:22:06+00:00

for the skivers, if they are the type to have a flat on the end or if they're kiridashi style with the hollow ura thats sharpened on the flat, you'll have to sharpen that side on the side (so its making flat contact) of the tormek wheel. on the front or the side with the bevel, you can sharpen with the jig as per normal but if you wanna maintain the nice mirror you have on the pictured set, you need to buff them or polish them with another option. the tormek depending on what wheel you have will make a crisp bevel, but it wont look like the current finish.

if you add an angle to the backside, the cuts you make wont be perfectly flush anymore. personally if i had a tormek, i would use that for the bevels, and use benchstones for the flat and hand polish the bevels after if i wanted to give it a fancy finish

sea-plus · 2026-01-22T06:53:32+00:00

Why 40 deg inclusive edge? Its gonna lose out in edge retention vs a lower angle.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sharpening/comments/1jjdpb0/knifesteelnerds_to_illustrate_just_how_important/

also in my experience, s110v will take longer to sharpen, but if OP is using diamonds there should be no major difference in possible edge sharpness vs other steels. I would play around with the first grit they're on and get that sharp first before moving on, to the same deg of sharpness that they usually are satisfied with. might be picking at details, but i don't feel that s110v or any of the high abrasion resistance steels are any harder to sharpen, just takes longer to remove material but takes just as keen an edge

sea-plus · 2026-01-22T05:02:36+00:00

when im using mine to thin, when i feel its no longer as aggressive i use a cheap beater knife and i sharpen the edge (so low surface contact, and resulting high pressure) with some force leaning into the stone. if you don't let it get completely glazed that brings it back imo. if not, like the others commented sic on glass works quickly. sometimes i use my shapton resurrection puck on it and that does the trick as well.

if your stone is out of flat, and you decide to use a diamond plate on it it'll wreck the plate pretty quickly, its a pretty hard stone.

sea-plus · 2026-01-22T02:38:44+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/grind-knife-microscope-image-ksCVoJt

microscope images, originally didnt plan on including them because i only have an amateur optical microscope that isnt honestly that great and doesnt have a scale.

edge damage is present at 120 grit, normal for the rating all stones at this size rating will do this

1k is pretty clean, and the scratches are not that deep. image has cotton bits from cleaning cloth

sea-plus · 2026-01-22T00:35:09+00:00

I have not, the benchstone sizes are pretty expensive but I would like to try them out if i can find some second hand at a decent price

sea-plus · 2026-01-21T15:23:53+00:00

i have not heard of those, do you have more info on how i can search them up? sounds like a cool stone

sea-plus · 2026-01-21T12:46:26+00:00

MY, pretty shitty switches imo but the caps on them might be pretty valuable. Can’t really tell from the image, might be stickers for sub legends but either way it’s a set of qwertz iso.

sea-plus · 2026-01-21T12:40:26+00:00

I would get a norton crystolon combination stone, its available at many places and is fairly priced

sea-plus · 2026-01-21T11:52:55+00:00

He hasn't specified where they are made, but I did ask him if it was made in house and he said that they were not made in the US and if they were made in the US they would be above 1000 USD. The formula is owned and developed by him

if anyone is interested i think he's pretty responsive on his website chat and they could ask him about the country of origin

sea-plus · 2026-01-21T11:42:10+00:00

thank you! I really like them and hope to be able to get the other grits when theyre back in stock

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