You take care of them….. starting with cleaning.
DMT and Moonflex Diamond Stones are excellent quality, but, they need regular cleaning to maintain the ability to “cut” steel resulting in sharp edges.
Its a big mistake to assume a diamond is ruined simply because it no longer “works” as well as it once did.
Bits of carbon, steel, dirt, and, wax clog the gaps between the diamond stones reducing the surface contact area. The finer a diamond is (ex: Moonflex 600 vs 100), the easier the stones are to be clogged up. The stone will skip down the ski edge without cutting and sharpening.
Soaking the stones overnight in a wax cleaning solution (SWIX), or, ammonia [or glass cleaner with ammonia] can help dissolve some of the wax and buildup. However, some manual labor will be required to clean the surface of the stones by using a stiff brush or towel.
However, diamond stones can be cleaned just like jewelry, and, sonic cleaners work really really well!!
The basket is removed to show stainless “tank” – notice the size of the hump in the bottom giving the outline of the transducer for the ultrasonic source.
Moonflex stones loaded into basket. Note: the orientation of the stones – face down, pointing to the bottom of the stainless tank and transducer. Notice a ceramic stone [white right side basket] has been added as well.
A large sonic cleaner is not required. However, you do want to fit all stones in a single layer of the basket without overlap. A low cost sonic cleaner can be found ~$60 range.
Next, add your favorite Wax removing agent to the tank, and lower in the basket. Citrus cleaners typically work well for removing wax and cleaning carbon deposits. The active ingredient to look for is Glycol Ether Solvent in Citrus cleaning products (Ex Mean Green) [sometimes marketed as natural cleaners] . Swix, SVST, and Wintersteiger wax cleaners work just as well, if not better, but they are more expensive. More info can be found in a separate post on “re-Moving Wax”. Your diamonds will be sparkly clean after a 180 second cycle!
