KME Sharpening System - Diamond Stone

Excellent system for great edges. Especially if you invest in the lapping films.

I've been waiting for this to comeback into stock as I recently got my personalised Dulo knife in K390 steel and needed a decent diamond sharpener. First impressions? It's fantastic. It's very easy to use and I've managed to get a hair shaving sharp edge on K390, which if anyone has a knife in this steel knows its definitely not the easiest to sharpen. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with knives in super steels. And of course, Heinnie's faultless service as always. I know there are cheaper Internet companies out there but Heinnie's service is second to none.

If you want your knives sharp then this is the kit for the job. I have Lansky & DMT sharpeners and the KME cuts faster and polishes to a mirror finish with the strops and diamond paste. Great piece of kit all round. Of course HH gave impeccable service thanks guys.

This will system is simply awesome at getting a consistent edge. As long as you have a basic idea of what you're doing (which is described in the included guide) you will get excellent results. The angle guide is the best I've used so far, a key component to getting a good edge, far better than the cheaper alternatives like Lanksy's system. The case it comes in has plenty of space to fill with extras such as a jewellers loupe and digital angle guide. Both of these live in my sharpening case keeping all kit together. The biggest downside is that the penknife jaws are extra and not yet available from Heinnie or anywhere else in the UK. Whilst the stock jaws can do most knives the penknife jaws are essential for the smaller blades on a swiss army knife. Don't let this put you off though, if you're getting a system at this price it shouldn't hurt to get a set of the penknife jaws from KME directly. Their website only offered shipping at $47 for a $25 dollar item but they are an extremely helpful and friendly company. They worked with me to a better shipping option and my kit increased by a set of penknife jaws, a kangaroo leather strop (that fit's the stone holder) and 4 micro CBN emulsion. For recurve blades they sell a curved, 3 grit diamond stone, also available from KME directly. Whilst the system is top notch 'as is' it can be expanded with different stones, strops and emulsions for all grits down to 160,000 grit to cover a multitude of blade finishes and shapes. It would be nice if Heinnie stocked some of the extras or at least directed you to * This kit should have you hunting down knives to sharpen to the point you have no more hair left on your forearms and hunting for more fertile pastures.

OK, it's WAY better than the Lansky or DMT offerings of the same type. However it suffers from the same problems that all of this kind of system have: the curved part of bushcraft style blades end up with a different angle to the straight section and deep recurves are almost a no go. It's still a good option but the fit and finish was less than I expected for the price. Mine had a shameful defect in that the angle guage markings didn't even align with each other on the left and right sides of the plate. This is either a bad manufacturing process or low quality control. Also, the the carry case design seemed cheap, ill fitting and very much a "rush to market" afterthought. After watching the bold claims made in the maker's video and spending so much on it I was disappointed. A Spyderco Sharpmaker can deal with recurves and the Edge Pro system and the Wicked Edge may be better value. It nearly got 3 stars. Hit and miss.

As an avid collector (most items bought from Heinnie because of their execellent service) I have long felt the need to become proficient at sharpening. Having tried numerous systems, I have have always been a bit of a dud, until now. I saw this system on Heinnie's website and because of the price, felt compelled to do a bit of research. Having watched several YouTube demo's I took the plunge and ordered the diamond stone set. Not much later, I reached out to KME themselves (I am based in the UK) with questions about supplementing the kit. Ron Swartz at KME was an absolute gentleman and via numerous emails, coached me through the basics of using a felt tip pen to find the correct angle, which grit to use in any particular situation and finally the dark arts of stropping with CBN emulsion. I can safely hand on heart that I have NEVER achieved results like this before. I reprofiled a William Henry EDC made of D2 (hard steel) and achieved a mirror finish to the edge that will shave hair at the lightest touch. I have now purchased a 100 grit (XX coarse) diamond stone [ESSENTIAL!] together with several Chosera stones, kangaroo strops and 4 and 1.5 micron emulsions, direct from KME. The results literally have to be seen to be believed. I'm hoping that Heinnie will see the feedback that this system is getting and expand their range so that I dont have to order direct from the US, but even this is painless if you can endure the wait. Can't praise the system enough. Buy it, you wont regret it, but DO learn to use it before you attempt anything expensive!

This has to be the best sharpener on the market. Best points are ball bearing guided rod, thickness of the rod, massive size of the stones and being able to flip the knife over to do both sides. Only real bad point is the self adjusting clamp, which opens like a birds beak so you are trying to hold a square blade with a vee shape, plus a bigger choice of grits would be nice. Don't let this put you off, it's a foolproof sharpening system which gives fantastic results.

Just a quick P.S. to my review 'cause Heinnie only let you have 1000 characters for a review... The stone carrier they come with now is also improved from the one shown in Heinnie's current photo (as of 3 april 2013) - It now has an aluminium base and improved clamping mechanism instead of the wooden base. Really holds the stones well. Also, KME have just released their "Pen Knife Pro" add-on jaws for this system which let you sharpen a Victorinox Classic SD down to 17 degrees each side. (Again this is only currently available direct from KME in the states - here's hoping HH can get them!) As far as I'm aware no other guided rod & stone systems will handle a blade as small as the Victorinox Classic SD.

Echoing the reviews already left, this is a truly great guided rod & stone system. As of date of this review (2 April 2014) they come in a much nicer case than the one shown in the photo currently. It's more like a large pistol case and it has loads of room for storing the base and any extra stones... They also come with a redesigned stone holder that is wood handle over a machined aluminium base. Also, KME now do their own diamond stones instead of the DMTs they used to ship this with, and comparing them to my diafold hones, they're REALLY good. KME also do chosera water stones down to 10000 grit for the system, and also do Cubic Boron Nitride emulsions and strops for them from 4 micron down to 0.1 micrometer (160.000 grit!) but at the moment you can only get them direct from KME in the states. Mine got my Spyderco UKPK G10 scales with S30v blade steel very very sharp indeed in about 6 minutes work using only the 3 diamond stones included in the kit. Awesome kit!