I do recall the Cold Steel Master Hunter coming up during my research and it does seem to be a fine knife.

My only reason for not really considering it is, in retrospect, a bit on the superficial side. Simply put, Cold Steel's marketing and the image it projects of itself turns me off as a consumer. They seem to market their products mostly as weapons, or at least that's the image that has stuck with me. Whenever I hear Cold Steel, the image that comes to mind is that of a guy slashing a pig apart with some large, tacticool blade.

If I was in the market for an outright weapon, maybe they'd be on my radar as a company to consider. But if I'm looking for a tool for use in the outdoors, I'm not likely to give them the consideration that they might otherwise deserve based strictly on their product's merits.

As I understand it, the DC3 & DC4 are fine diamond on one side and fine ceramic on the other.

Based on this, I'm thinking that any good diamond whetstone, or even a compact field-sized diamond sharpener, would be sufficient. I could then use one of my existing ceramic sharpeners for the finer edge as desired (according to my understanding of Fallkniven's sharpening instructions at least).

For example, I am thinking of picking up something like the DMT Fine Whetstone or even just the DMT Fine Mini-Sharpener for now (the latter being more likely to make it into my bag when I head out the door).

Any thoughts on whether this plan is good, bad, or otherwise?

Another field sharpening option worth mentioning here is Fallkniven's D3t stone. This is the diamond side of the DC3 with a tape backing that allows it to be fixed to the F1's sheath like this:



Image Source (from britishblades.com)

One disadvantage I see to this is that the stone will cover up the 2 holes at the bottom of the sheath. I don't think this is the route I'm going to go down, but it might be of some interest to others here.

I can't see a problem with using any type of medium/fine diamond sharpener. It will raise a basic edge in any steel. As to maintaining the convex grind, the mfg. instructions suggest this is a long-term consideration.

Having owned both the DMTs and DC4, I would stick with the DC4. The DMTs just don't seem to be as effective at getting a good edge on the harder Stainless Steels. The DMTs are perfectly OK for the softer steels though i.e. Victorinox, Leatherman 420 and 440Cs etc but seem to struggle with the harder stuff like ZDP-189 and Lam.SGPS etc

The DC4 is not to expensive either compared to 2 or 3 grades of DMTs

Hmmm ... that wasn't the answer I was hoping for. It wasn't as much the cost as the fact that I could pick up one of the DMT products easily when I stop by MEC to get a few supplies before my next trip instead of ordering a DC4 online (I hate paying for shipping, but then usually end up buying more than I intend to get the "free" shipping!).

Thanks for letting me know though, I guess I should start shopping around for a DC4.

If you want a diamond sharpener nothing I'm aware of can even approach the quality of Japanese Atoma plates. They're very expensive but you can get a small slice made for Edge Pro use for a lot less. These 1" x 6" strips are mounted to EP blanks but are also perfect for portable use freehand.

I acknowledge your expertise in sharp-making, and the resources expended to obtain the best sharpening equipment. I ask this based upon ignorance only, and ask your indulgence: Other than expense,cachet, and user skill, is there any difference between a 1000 grit japanese water stone and a 1000 grit sheet of emery paper contact-cemented to a sheet of glass? It would seem to me that the issues are the relative hardness of steel and abrasive, and the flatness of the abrasive surface. Thank you-Mike

Another factor is the ease of which the abrasive breaks out of the matrix or adhesive.

I defer to those with greater expertise, but I have been happy with my DMT sharpener that I have used for years to sharpen knives used commercially for butchery and restaurant work, on my s30V, S35V, X15 T.N, ZDP 189, and CPM-M4 pocket knives as well as on my plane blades and chisels made of O1, A2, CMP-10V, CMP-3V and traditional Japanese blue and white steel paring chisels tempered to c66, etc. and have no complaints.

I am going to buy one of those Atoma plates to try it out, though.

A water stone is friable, meaning that new surface is constantly being exposed. A Japanese waterstone will work faster than a sandpaper and last much longer. The flatness can be an issue but if you lay the sandpaper on a tile or a piece of glass you're going to be at least as flat as the water stone. And of course, the water stone isn't gonna stay flat; you'll need to flatten it periodically, either on a stone fixer, a bit of sandpaper of another stone/plate. A DMT or Atoma works great. I use a DMT XXC for flattening.

Yeah, the Atoma is better but due to the lower price I still have eight different DMT plates and I still use them, but mostly for flattening my water stones. I don't really dig diamonds all that much for actual knife sharpening except at the really low end. They really excel at cutting the initial bevel. Above the 140 Atoma I generally switch to stones.