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Recommendations for Diamond Sharpening Plates for Broadheads?

BackSpasm

BackSpasm

Well-Known Member
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Joined
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Messages
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Location
Tennessee
I am thinking of asking for some diamond sharpening plates for Father's day. I see the ones on stay sharp's website (linked below) but 70 bucks plus shipping is a little steep when I see so many cheaper alternatives out there

Anyone have some they love?
 
I have a DMT double sided diafold that works pretty good. I use my staysharp to get a good edge and finish up with the dmt. They have a kit with three diafolds that’s like a bill but I think a single diafold(two sides) is around $50.
 
I have had the Smith's brand in many forms over the years and never had any complaints. I have 2 bench stones and a couple of different field sharpeners I use regularly. They all do the job.
 
I think I should clarify that I am looking for 5 or so progressives stones from 200-400 ish up to around 2,000, not just a diamond sharpener which I have
 
Not really a recommendation, but I researched them some when I thought I was going to shoot the Vector MD3 last year (ended up shooting Sevr 1.5 due to Vector not making their release date). Weighing quality and value, I was going to get this kit:

www.sharpeningsupplies.com

DMT 6" Dia-Sharp Kit

This Special 6" DMT Diamond Kit in Wooden Box is the Least Expensive Way to Purchase all 4 Grits. A Grit for Every Purpose This DMT 6" x 2" Dia-Sharp Diamond Kit is a tremendous value.
www.sharpeningsupplies.com

The Sirius Archery stones were talked up. As you can see, they were using UltraSharp but may have had something better in their Ranch Fairy kit, idk. I don't get the sense UltraSharp are as good as DMT, but a little cheaper.


742365C3-E974-44B4-A713-F2FCBA3EACED.png
 
BackSpasm said:
I am thinking of asking for some diamond sharpening plates for Father's day. I see the ones on stay sharp's website (linked below) but 70 bucks plus shipping is a little steep when I see so many cheaper alternatives out there

Anyone have some they love?
Click to expand...
I tried some el cheapo ebay specials that came in rusty and warped. The pictures didn't look all that much different that the ones on stay sharp's website, but they were not usable.
 
Whatever you get will be better than the Hazard Fraught diamond plates I bought to touch-up wood lathe tools once upon a time. They work well for that, and for cleaning up hand plane irons, but probably aren't flat enough to really do a good job on broadheads.
 
My question is what broadheads are you sharpening, and are you using a guide with it or free handing it?
 
Bowtechassassin said:
My question is what broadheads are you sharpening, and are you using a guide with it or free handing it?
Click to expand...
I have a lansky sharpening system and strop that gets stuff pretty darn sharp but is very laborious and takes a lot of finesse for me especially on little blades. Also use my little rada sharpener on edc knives and kitchen knives with much success. but am thinking of getting a stay sharp for both my fixed magnus blades and the expandables I shoot as well (maybe get the grey and expandable combo). Just so stupid simple to use and gets stuff scary sharp plus has generally great reviews as long as you aren't sharpening curved heads (where the lanksy shines). I also have a decent set of wood chisels that I sharpen with grades of sandpaper and it works so well I figure the diamond plates could be good for that as well
 
BackSpasm said:
as long as you aren't sharpening curved heads (where the lanksy shines)
Click to expand...

Probably doesn't matter to you since you have that Lansky, but StaySharp has a similar product (IIRC the 'type C') that handles both concave ( ex., Kudu) and convex (ex., Maasai, Bone) curved broadheads. He recommends using either round files or (round or square) dowels wrapped in abrasive paper for these. Works well on my Maasais.

edit: apologies if I'm hijacking the thread, that's not my intent. I am also interested in what the best diamond plates are.
 
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This is all great advice, the problem I have with the DMT set is that it only goes up to 1,200 grit and from what I understand 2,000 is needed followed by a strop to get just hair popping sharp, which is what I am looking for
 
Incorrect you can get hair popping sharp off of your roughest grit (and should be) if your not your just polishing and not going to get hair popping sharp. I have a dmt set the iron will head I shot my buck with last year sat outside to the elements for 3 weeks before I got back into there to find it. I had it hair popping sharp with my courses grit then polished it with the remaining grits followed by the strop. You can strop at say 600 grit and have great results only thing is each grit higher your just polishing and making it a smoother edge. Sorry for the long reply.
 
I have the DMT plates, they work fine. I’ve used them mostly for sharpening my old hand planes. However I’ve found a piece of float glass and sandpaper to be easier to use, you don’t have to worry about it clogging or rusting. The fancy 3M Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is really nice, but you can just use whatever sandpaper you want.

taytools.com

Supplies > Sharpening > Scary Sharp System

The Scary Sharp sharpening method is a fast, effective, consistent and very cost effective approach to sharpening knives and woodworking tools.
taytools.com taytools.com
 
I would NOT go with the UltraSharp plates. I regret them. They are certainly high quality, but they don't list the micron ratings, only the grit. And the grit absolutely does not match up to what they say it is. They are definitely way coarser than the stated grit. I'm certainly not a sharpening expert, but just going by feel and pattern on the BH, my guess is
300=250, 600=300, 1200=600, 2200= 800, 3000=900.
It gets progressively more off the higher the grit. Before you say it, I used a pack of eBay BHs to break in the stones before I started on my bishops. I spent 20 minutes of pretty aggressive back-and-forth swipes on each stone. They're still very coarse. Even when you finish on the 3000 grit stone, there's no mirror finish even started. I used a piece of float glass after the 3k with 1000 grit sandpaper. And I pretty much instantly got a semi-mirror finish.
I didn't go with DMTs because I've read their quality has gone down dramatically the last couple of years.
I wanted a super coarse stone to get dings out and set bevels quickly, so I got the DMT Extra Extra coarse. It's perfect and I don't see any quality issues, at least on this one. Should have gone with DMTs for my regular stones.
Also, someone said sandpaper type doesn't matter. It ABSOLUTELY does. Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is useless on broadheads. That's sandpaper meant for wood. You need Silicon Carbide or Wet/Dry sandpaper.
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bigmike23 said:
Also, someone said sandpaper type doesn't matter. It ABSOLUTELY does. Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is useless on broadheads. That's sandpaper meant for wood. You need Silicon Carbide or Wet/Dry sandpaper.
Click to expand...
I gotta go look now.....pretty sure I just got the run of the mill standard sandpaper.

120, 220, 400, leather and they shave hair or slice paper effortlessly
 
bigmike23 said:
I would NOT go with the UltraSharp plates. I regret them. They are certainly high quality, but they don't list the micron ratings, only the grit. And the grit absolutely does not match up to what they say it is. They are definitely way coarser than the stated grit. I'm certainly not a sharpening expert, but just going by feel and pattern on the BH, my guess is
300=250, 600=300, 1200=600, 2200= 800, 3000=900.
It gets progressively more off the higher the grit. Before you say it, I used a pack of eBay BHs to break in the stones before I started on my bishops. I spent 20 minutes of pretty aggressive back-and-forth swipes on each stone. They're still very coarse. Even when you finish on the 3000 grit stone, there's no mirror finish even started. I used a piece of float glass after the 3k with 1000 grit sandpaper. And I pretty much instantly got a semi-mirror finish.
I didn't go with DMTs because I've read their quality has gone down dramatically the last couple of years.
I wanted a super coarse stone to get dings out and set bevels quickly, so I got the DMT Extra Extra coarse. It's perfect and I don't see any quality issues, at least on this one. Should have gone with DMTs for my regular stones.
Also, someone said sandpaper type doesn't matter. It ABSOLUTELY does. Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is useless on broadheads. That's sandpaper meant for wood. You need Silicon Carbide or Wet/Dry sandpaper.
View attachment 86344
Click to expand...
So you wish you had purchased all DMT? How many grits do you think are necessary?
 
BackSpasm said:
So you wish you had purchased all DMT? How many grits do you think are necessary?
Click to expand...
That's up to you. As Welda said, even 400 is very sharp. It won't feel sharp off the stone, but once stropped it's a razor. From what I understand, a DMT 1200 is extremely sharp. I have sandpaper up to 7k grit just because a mirror finish on a BH is sexy haha. Yes I wish I went with DMT. From a couple utube videos Ive seen, DMTs match up with their grit. They also list the micron size.
 
Weldabeast said:
I gotta go look now.....pretty sure I just got the run of the mill standard sandpaper.

120, 220, 400, leather and they shave hair or slice paper effortlessly
Click to expand...
Silicone carbide is run of the mill. I got a 45-pack on amazon for like 8 bucks. The tan sandpaper youd find at lowes is no good.
 
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