Reply To: EZE-LAP sharpening stones worn out after flattening a couple of plane irons
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I have a small Trend diamond that I use for honing router bits. That came with a pencil eraser to use to clean the plate. Seems to work very well. That may be worth a try.
For my day to day plane and chisel sharpening / flattening, I have a system that uses the diamond plates from one of those cheap and cheerful four sided plastic box systems. I have used this for many years with no issues, and if I need to replace any of the plates, the cost would be relatively low.
I disassembled the plates from their box (relatively easy to do, just be careful when you bend the tabs, so that you don’t deform the plate at either end), and have them held to a flat surface (rear shoe of a DW power plane that just happens to be the right size) using strong magnets. Means that I can use all four grits on the same flat plate.
I am able to get flat backs on chisels and plane irons, as well as chisels I can shave with and plane irons that give shavings I can read through (which is sharp enough for the work I do). I have used both the eclipse type honing guide and freehand methods.
(I also have some very fine wet and dry that I use for polishing.)