Looking for affordable diamond sharpening stones
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- This topic has 46 replies, 21 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by rustifer.
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2 February 2017 at 12:32 am #308906
I am reading along, because sooner or later, I want diamond plates too. Apparently, DMT plates are great, but also very expensive. But as someone mentioned, sometimes, there are special offers. Perhaps, if I buy one at a time…
At the moment, I am using two whetstones with two grits each. Sharpening is quick and the stones don’t wear much. However, they wear, and I can see that on the blade of my plane, it is slightly curved now. Perhaps I should have dedicated stones for my plane irons, because obviously, chisels dig grooves into the stones. By the way, my stones are “traditional” European compound stones, no Japanese stones. They do keep the shape for a while, but not forever. It is especially nasty to grind the rounded edges of the smoothing plane iron, and I also hone the thin sides of my scraper on the stones (which seems to improve the edge). However, I prefer these stones over sandpaper, because they are so much cheaper, somewhere between 5 and 10 Euro a piece, and they last much longer than sandpaper for the same amount of money.
On the long run, it will be diamond plates, I am sure. And i will probably go for something like the thick DMT stones, because I don’t trust the thin sandwiched ones. It should be a life-time investment, and I am planning to live on for quite a while.
Someone asked, how often to sharpen. I think, whenever an edge cuts less than expected, it is time to do so. And that is just another reason, why I want diamond plates; to make sharpening as quick and easy as possible.
Dieter
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Hugo Notti.
I’ll probably be getting my DMT around Christmas time of this year by the looks of things. It’s ok though because I do have an Axminster stone to get me by until then.
Problem I have is the stones I want I can only find in America
http://www.bestsharpeningstones.com/catalog/Ultra-Sharp-Diamond-Sharpening-Stones.htm
They are proving tricky to find in the UK, at least for comparable pricing.
What’s your opinion on these stones:
Coarse: http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/section//sn/DMTD8C#.WJMEoRmLSHt
Fine: http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/section//sn/DMTD8F#.WJMEpRmLSHt
Extra Fine: http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/section//sn/DMTD8E#.WJMEpxmLSHt
It only says coarse, fine and extra fine but I can’t find out what grit they are.
3 February 2017 at 5:50 pm #308985I thought the medium stone was 600? That’s the grit available in the Eze-Lap stones and the one I plan to buy-just found it here https://paulsellers.com/2012/05/questions-answered-diamond-sharpening-plates/.
I’ve just started replacing my cheap plates and I only have the course (250) one so far but I like it very much.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by cragglerock.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by cragglerock.
3 February 2017 at 7:56 pm #308993Classic Handtools in Ipswich has within 48 hours provided me with 120 – 8000 grit, 3″ x 8″, DMT stones. /soj
4 February 2017 at 5:35 am #309000I wouldn’t worry about the exact grit size of the stones. 320 800 and 1200 should work fine.
18 February 2017 at 4:20 am #309318I’ve now picked up a 400 generic diamond plate from ebay to accompany my 600. Like the 600 it’s just fine. Recently I sharpened my marking knife using just these stones and the strop. It’s cutting better than new.
This weekend I’ll order 3 more resulting in what I consider a full set. At less than $10 each, including shipping, they’re an incredible bargain.
Meanwhile I’ll continue with water stones for use from 2000 to 10,000.
I also have 3 cheap, thin diamond plates from eBay. I just glued them to a piece of MDF for a “sharpening station” (the plates are so thin that cutting a recess seemed not worth it). It so far seems to be working just fine. Again, though, I’ve only had them for a month or so, so they may not hold up for years. But if anyone’s curious I’d suggest giving them a try.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by thomm.
18 February 2017 at 11:43 pm #309341Thomm, have you considered the 3M abrasive films? They’re cheap and effective at sharpening knives…maybe other thin edge tools?
Jeff D.19 February 2017 at 7:46 am #309344I did exactly the same thing Thomm for quite some time. It did give me a very sharp edge but I struggled a bit with wider plane irons, 4 & 1/2 etc. It is a very cost effective solution to anyone on a tight budget as I was.
I recently starting buy a set of the Eze Lap 3″ x 8″ stones and I finally have managed to afford them all and the difference is night and day. Not so much in terms of sharpness but speed. I can now have a chisel sharp again in less than one minute (I suppose that speed might slow down a little as they wear). In addition I found that especially on plane irons I was always slightly out of square but now I don’t have to skew quite as much this problem has corrected itself.
Now if I could just learn to plane square, cut square etc etc lol 🙂
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by cragglerock.
19 February 2017 at 3:22 pm #309354I originally was using water stones. When I was thinking about going to diamond stones I first used diamond lapping film to test the waters.
I used these attached to plate glass. I found they worked very well and convinced me to go with the diamond plates. I only used them for a couple of months, so I can’t comment on the long term longevity.
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