Diamond Sharpening and Polishing Compound Recommendations

[user 26792]

Hi All

I'm in the market for some Diamond Sharpening Plates and a polishing compound. I've seen a variety of different sizes and types and quite honestly I'm rather confused about what to go for.

At present my budget does not allow for the Eze Lap plates and therefore looking at the cheaper end of the price spectrum aka lower the better. I've seen some by Am Tech for less than £10 each however I don't know what grit the gradations are, having popped into a TK Maxx they have some different Am Tech plates in a set of 3 for £6.00 but the size is quite small and really only suitable for small knives and chisels not plane irons, the gradations were 200 - coarse, 400 - fine and 800 - super fine. Ideally I would like a set of plates 300 - 400 (Coarse) 600 - 800 (Fine) 1200 - 1600 (Super fine) - also correct me if I'm wrong because this is my understanding of the gradations mentioned. At the moment, I'm using an old combination stone which is 30+ years old so obviously it has seen better days but it still gives me a cutting edge albeit not a great one. As such I'm considering a 2 sided diamond plate and I've seen one from Faithfull and one from Axminster both similar in spec slight difference in price. The other issue I have is that I don't really know what the performance and longevity of the plates will be, I will be upgrading to the Eze Lap when budget permits however I also don't fancy paying out for something that will get 10 sharpenings and die. Any advice would be appreciated.

As for the polishing compound I've seen two with ridiculous price difference between them on Amazon and can't quite understand why, can anyone advise what I should look for in a polishing compound or is any old brick good enough. Considering there's a youtube video showing oven cleaners giving quite good results.

Thanks

 

[D_W]

600 grit eze lap and 1 micron loose diamonds on eBay to be used on an inexpensive medium . Should be about a quarter per carat. Cast iron, mild steel, inexpensive jasper, agate, hard hone slate to use the 1 micron diamonds on. All of those make the diamonds last a long time.

If you use a grinder, you don't need any intermediate steps.

 

[Ttrees]

I think I saw those Am tech ones and they have coloured plastic bases
I'd not bother with those.
Here is two links for other plates
The cheapest DMD plates
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DMD-new ... 78727.html
And the Ultex
https://www.its.co.uk/Hand-Tools/Sharpening-Tools.htm
Good luck

 

[ED65]

...Am Tech plates in a set of 3 for £6.00 but the size is quite small and really only suitable for small knives and chisels not plane irons...

Were these the fairly standard size for this type of plate with the plastic backing: 52 x 152mm or 2" x 6"?

While a wider and longer honing surface is handy, it's quite common to hone on a stone that's narrower than the iron's width. You can either skew the iron to work along the length or work side to side or even across the width. If they are that size they're fine for all your honing duties.

Ideally I would like a set of plates 300 - 400 (Coarse) 600 - 800 (Fine) 1200 - 1600 (Super fine) - also correct me if I'm wrong because this is my understanding of the gradations mentioned.

If I were buying individually (from sellers on ebay or AliExpress) I'd be inclined to get an 80 or 100 for the coarse which would be extremely aggressive and only used for repair work and recreation of primary bevels. Then 300 or 400 as a medium and 1000 for my fine. You can go finer on both the medium and fine picks here but you sacrifice a bit of speed and don't gain anything really in terms of the edge produced. Quite honestly you could stop at 400 grit for many things.

At the moment, I'm using an old combination stone which is 30+ years old so obviously it has seen better days but it still gives me a cutting edge albeit not a great one.

If you're decided you want to try diamond plates out then go ahead, but with a bit of TLC your stone can work just as well now as it did when new.

Stones don't wear out until they wear out if you get what I mean.

...I will be upgrading to the Eze Lap when budget permits...

I'd recommend shelving that desire. The cheaper plates seem to hold up well enough in amateur use that aiming higher seems a plain waste of money. As far as longevity goes, I've never managed to wear one out! That's not to say they can't wear out but you have to be really heavy handed and use them loads. And if you'll be stropping your edges won't need to see your diamond plates often so they'll see infrequent use.

As for the polishing compound I've seen two with ridiculous price difference between them on Amazon and can't quite understand why...

Let me guess, Simichrome? I think those are we saw you coming prices.

This is for a strop right? You can go with one of the green waxy blocks sold as chromium oxide (these are mostly mixed these days but that's not a bad thing) or a tube polish such as Flitz, Peek or Aotosol. Shouldn't set you back more than about a fiver and will probably last you until well into the next decade.

 

[user 26792]

This is for a strop right? You can go with one of the green waxy blocks sold as chromium oxide (these are mostly mixed these days but that's not a bad thing) or a tube polish such as Flitz, Peek or Aotosol. Shouldn't set you back more than about a fiver and will probably last you until well into the next decade.

Yes it is for a strop sorry should have made that clearer. I've seen one by Silverline which is cheap and my question really is there any difference in the green blocks from brand to brand.

As for the diamond plates, and wanting to upgrade to the Eze Lap, I'm taking my lead from Paul Sellers, as with most of the other things in my woodworking journey. I have seen a video by Mitch Peacock advocating the double sided Diamond Plate by Axminster which looks almost identical to the one made by faithfull only the one by faithfull is £10 cheaper. At the same time though I don't fancy buying a massively inferior product for the sake of £10.00 so any commentary on the quality differences between the 2 would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ED65]

I've seen one by Silverline which is cheap and my question really is there any difference in the green blocks from brand to brand.

Yes there are differences. Some might even be chromium oxide as their names suggest :mrgreen: But many these days are apparently blended with aluminium oxide, which is much harder so they tend to require fewer strokes to get the desired effect (some are apparently made only using aluminium oxide with some green dye added!) Anyway unless you read feedback to the contrary I think you can take it that they all work.

As for the diamond plates, and wanting to upgrade to the Eze Lap, I'm taking my lead from Paul Sellers, as with most of the other things in my woodworking journey.

Fair enough but FWIW lots of the members here have cheaper and low-cost diamond plates and are perfectly happy with them. And you can for sure get edges just as sharp as Paul's using something else, including sharpening systems with no diamonds in the mix, so there's that.

I don't have the huge collection of sharpening gear that some have built up but I've experimented with this and that by taking advantage of online buying and car boots to try some things I wouldn't have bought at full retail. Using elements of what I've accrued over the years I can switch between using oilstones A and B or A and C without a strop, oilstones A and B/C with a strop, diamond plates with and without a strop. And for almost all planing jobs I can't tell the difference once the iron is back in the plane. There's no visible difference in the surface left behind and just as importantly there's no difference in resistance that I notice. On the second point Paul himself has said he's observed this too so you can take it as gospel

 

[D_W]

This is for a strop right? You can go with one of the green waxy blocks sold as chromium oxide (these are mostly mixed these days but that's not a bad thing) or a tube polish such as Flitz, Peek or Aotosol. Shouldn't set you back more than about a fiver and will probably last you until well into the next decade.

Yes it is for a strop sorry should have made that clearer. I've seen one by Silverline which is cheap and my question really is there any difference in the green blocks from brand to brand.

As for the diamond plates, and wanting to upgrade to the Eze Lap, I'm taking my lead from Paul Sellers, as with most of the other things in my woodworking journey. I have seen a video by Mitch Peacock advocating the double sided Diamond Plate by Axminster which looks almost identical to the one made by faithfull only the one by faithfull is £10 cheaper. At the same time though I don't fancy buying a massively inferior product for the sake of £10.00 so any commentary on the quality differences between the 2 would be appreciated.

Thanks

Unless one says it's made in the western world, they're from China and if on a milled plate, sort of flat, which is a threat to blade backs. But that can be worked around by using sandpaper for that initially. Diamond hones are a poor choice for flattening backs for their cost, it's hard on them and good quality fastened down sandpaper is much faster and cheaper.

Eze lap are excellent and reasonably flat, atoms are superb, and the inexpensive plates are excellent for bevel work. I'd put trend dead last for offering a hone made in China (My understanding from the razor board), with common monocrystalline diamonds at a price higher than better plates.

 

[user 26792]

I've seen one by Silverline which is cheap and my question really is there any difference in the green blocks from brand to brand.

Yes there are differences. Some might even be chromium oxide as their names suggest :mrgreen: But many these days are apparently blended with aluminium oxide, which is much harder so they tend to require fewer strokes to get the desired effect (some are apparently made only using aluminium oxide with some green dye added!) Anyway unless you read feedback to the contrary I think you can take it that they all work.

I don't have the huge collection of sharpening gear that some have built up but I've experimented with this and that by taking advantage of online buying and car boots to try some things I wouldn't have bought at full retail. Using elements of what I've accrued over the years I can switch between using oilstones A and B or A and C without a strop, oilstones A and B/C with a strop, diamond plates with and without a strop. And for almost all planing jobs I can't tell the difference once the iron is back in the plane. There's no visible difference in the surface left behind and just as importantly there's no difference in resistance that I notice. On the second point Paul himself has said he's observed this too so you can take it as gospel

Thanks for the info, gives me something to keep an eye out. From my research it seems the lack of noticeable difference between sharpening methods is pretty universally accepted . I'm wanting to be pretty minimalist when it comes to any gear I get and I think with the information that's available it makes it quite easy to do. Hence the decision to upgrade from the combi stone to the diamond plates.

Unless one says it's made in the western world, they're from China and if on a milled plate, sort of flat, which is a threat to blade backs. But that can be worked around by using sandpaper for that initially. Diamond hones are a poor choice for flattening backs for their cost, it's hard on them and good quality fastened down sandpaper is much faster and cheaper.

Eze lap are excellent and reasonably flat, atoms are superb, and the inexpensive plates are excellent for bevel work. I'd put trend dead last for offering a hone made in China (My understanding from the razor board), with common monocrystalline diamonds at a price higher than better plates.

I was only planning on using the plates for bevel work anyway. I'd use sandpaper on top of my granite chopping board to initialise and flatten anything because it seems to be a lot easier. Once that's done I'd use the Diamond plates and the strop for the cutting edge.

My personal preference is to buy good quality tools and if that means paying a justified premium for it then I don't mind. Obviously I'm not a complete idiot yet (give it a few more bumps to the head and I might get there) so if something that costs a fiver is just as good or better as something that costs £100 than I'd save my money. This is where experience comes in something I am yet to gain so I turn to these wonderful forums filled with people with far more knowledge and experience than I have for sage advice.

 

[D_W]

All of the monocrystalline plates have about the same lifetime. The milled steel plates that are very inexpensive like dmd are included in that. There are some Japanese and American plates, and tons Made in china.

Eze lap are the cheapest that are consistently flat, and have polycrystalline diamonds in the matrix and will leave a nicer scratch pattern as they wear, but the sometimes have rough edges that take a little use before they break in (around the perimeter of the hones). Atoma are also flat, but I'm not aware of anything else other than the coarse dmt plate (expensive) that is, at least in milled steel. The plastic core dmt duosharps are flat, but usually relatively expensive.

My ire with trend is that you don't have to look far on amazon or shaving forums to find them out of flat, and the spec is per inch of plate, so it's nearly meaninglessness. The sell for higher than anything else over here (from the likes of japan woodworker and woodcraft who already have bad prices) and they try to peddle some expensive fluid for them. They are electroplated (relatively short life) and based on the evasive wording about origin, probably made in China for very little, whereas the flat plates mentioned above are made in the first world. Someone could confirm the China origin, that's what the users on the shaving forum reported. If they are Japan, that would be better, but the Japanese I wood plate is about half the cost.

Economy in flat plates are the ones mentioned above, but I think diamond hones are poor sharpening economy in the long term unless you do little sharpening- The atoma and Eze lap seem to be the the most durable, they just get slower and slower over time.

No clue what the Eze lap go for over there, they used to be about 35 dollars here, but they're more now.

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

I use Ezelap plates and they work fine. TBH much of the time I only use the extra fine followed by a leather strop with some green stuff from Axminster. The coarse medium and fine are only really necessary if I've chipped an edge. When you first get the coarse it is incredible and it is tempting to think that the grinder is redundant, however it does not take long for it to slow down to a steady (but still useful) pace. These stones https://www.its.co.uk/pd/210042-Ultex-8 ... 210042.htm have received good reviews on this forum and are considerably cheaper. ultex-diamond-stones-t100153.html
As far as them wearing out, I use the extra fine daily and have had it for about 4 years (I think) and it still works fine
Paddy

Edit Having read the thread I linked I see that some people have complained that their Ultex stones are not completely flat. It is debateable how much this is a problem, but worth bearing in mind