user 26792
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Hi All
Purchased a pair of 8" x 3" single sided Ultex diamond plates, one is Coarse 300 grit and another in medium 600 grit, £20 each. These are the first set of Diamond plates I've purchased prior to this I was using an old combination stone which has seen better days. Planning on purchasing the 1200 grit one at some point as well. The grits were chosen on the basis of Paul Sellers videos. I used them for the first time today and thought it might be good to articulate my thoughts in case others find it helpful and because I bought them because of the recommendations on this forum. Just FYI, I'm very much a newbie when it comes to sharpening edges and everything else, so perhaps my technique and method is not quite as refined as it should be. I'll give as much detail as I can in relation to what I did, so there is some context.
Purchased them from ITS because they seem to be the only stockist of Ultex plates and felt a little ripped off with the delivery charge of £4.95, mainly because they sent a catalogue heavier than the plates which I expressly ticked the box to say I didn't want and it came in a box big enough to fit 2 pairs of my size 9 boots, without any internal packaging to minimise the risk of damage whilst in transit. The plates themselves were boxed and came with a protective case. Simply from a practicality standpoint the box could have been much smaller. Perhaps I'm spoiled because of my usual online store of choice is Amazon and therefore being pedantic.
As for the plates, as mentioned they did come with a protective case and a piece of non slip rubber grip which are nice little additions and make the price tag even more appealing, especially when considering alternative plates measuring at 8" x 3" from Eze Lap and DMT are over £50. My initial thoughts were in relation to the look and feel of them and they looked pretty robust, are helpfully labelled with the grit count at the top of the plate and they have a premium feel in relation to the weight. As a famous Russian once said "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable...". The surface of the plate has a criss-cross pattern which Ultex say, is so the dirt and debris can be channelled away. Personally, I think it's a reason the price tag is as low as it is because the surface obviously is less Diamond than the ones without the pattern.
When I used them, I lubricated the surface using a glass cleaner spray I had in the house, it was a Mr Muscle don't think the brand makes a difference, although a check of the ingredients in comparison to others might prove otherwise. I was sharpening and setting up the cutting iron and cap iron for my jack plane which I had already done some work on using some cheap 100 grit wet and dry abrasive paper on top of a granite chopping board to get them flat and square, again sprayed using the glass cleaner. To get the angle I just followed the existing bevel on the cutting iron as I don't have a honing guide or angle measurement ruler to get the perfect angle. Started out on the 300 grit and worked the irons until the scratch patterns were consistent and replaced the scratch from the abrasive paper, perhaps I should have kept going until I got a burr on the cutting iron, but I didn't want to risk making a mistake. Moved onto the 600 grit and did the same thing. When I was sharpening the cutting iron I flipped the iron over to the flat side and just made a couple of passes. Took a break for an hour or so and when I came back to my shock the 600 grit plate had little rust spots on it. I was pretty sure I had pretty much got rid of all the glass cleaner, so I'm hoping this was the debris from the cutting iron and not the plate because it did rub off quite easily. After a little more work on the 600 grit plate, I decided to give them a little stropping on the rough side of a piece of veg tan leather, I bought intending to make it into a strop, no compound or anything, just bare leather, mostly because I was curious if it would do anything and it did give a bit of a polish so I hope with the compound, the results will be better. When testing the sharpness of the blade I made a couple of passes on my arm and managed to cut a little hair not much. Using it on a piece of timber, I don't think it was quite as sharp as I would have liked, at this point I realised that my combination stone likely had a finer grit level than 600 which is possibly why I didn't get the result I wanted, paired with impatience of course. I'll give it another sharpening once I get the honing compound which should be sometime this week.
In conclusion, I think the plates are a decent buy for £20, in hindsight, I should have bought the fine 1200 grit instead of one of the others. Live and learn. Hope this has been an informative post. If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks
K
Purchased a pair of 8" x 3" single sided Ultex diamond plates, one is Coarse 300 grit and another in medium 600 grit, £20 each. These are the first set of Diamond plates I've purchased prior to this I was using an old combination stone which has seen better days. Planning on purchasing the 1200 grit one at some point as well. The grits were chosen on the basis of Paul Sellers videos. I used them for the first time today and thought it might be good to articulate my thoughts in case others find it helpful and because I bought them because of the recommendations on this forum. Just FYI, I'm very much a newbie when it comes to sharpening edges and everything else, so perhaps my technique and method is not quite as refined as it should be. I'll give as much detail as I can in relation to what I did, so there is some context.
Purchased them from ITS because they seem to be the only stockist of Ultex plates and felt a little ripped off with the delivery charge of £4.95, mainly because they sent a catalogue heavier than the plates which I expressly ticked the box to say I didn't want and it came in a box big enough to fit 2 pairs of my size 9 boots, without any internal packaging to minimise the risk of damage whilst in transit. The plates themselves were boxed and came with a protective case. Simply from a practicality standpoint the box could have been much smaller. Perhaps I'm spoiled because of my usual online store of choice is Amazon and therefore being pedantic.
As for the plates, as mentioned they did come with a protective case and a piece of non slip rubber grip which are nice little additions and make the price tag even more appealing, especially when considering alternative plates measuring at 8" x 3" from Eze Lap and DMT are over £50. My initial thoughts were in relation to the look and feel of them and they looked pretty robust, are helpfully labelled with the grit count at the top of the plate and they have a premium feel in relation to the weight. As a famous Russian once said "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable...". The surface of the plate has a criss-cross pattern which Ultex say, is so the dirt and debris can be channelled away. Personally, I think it's a reason the price tag is as low as it is because the surface obviously is less Diamond than the ones without the pattern.
When I used them, I lubricated the surface using a glass cleaner spray I had in the house, it was a Mr Muscle don't think the brand makes a difference, although a check of the ingredients in comparison to others might prove otherwise. I was sharpening and setting up the cutting iron and cap iron for my jack plane which I had already done some work on using some cheap 100 grit wet and dry abrasive paper on top of a granite chopping board to get them flat and square, again sprayed using the glass cleaner. To get the angle I just followed the existing bevel on the cutting iron as I don't have a honing guide or angle measurement ruler to get the perfect angle. Started out on the 300 grit and worked the irons until the scratch patterns were consistent and replaced the scratch from the abrasive paper, perhaps I should have kept going until I got a burr on the cutting iron, but I didn't want to risk making a mistake. Moved onto the 600 grit and did the same thing. When I was sharpening the cutting iron I flipped the iron over to the flat side and just made a couple of passes. Took a break for an hour or so and when I came back to my shock the 600 grit plate had little rust spots on it. I was pretty sure I had pretty much got rid of all the glass cleaner, so I'm hoping this was the debris from the cutting iron and not the plate because it did rub off quite easily. After a little more work on the 600 grit plate, I decided to give them a little stropping on the rough side of a piece of veg tan leather, I bought intending to make it into a strop, no compound or anything, just bare leather, mostly because I was curious if it would do anything and it did give a bit of a polish so I hope with the compound, the results will be better. When testing the sharpness of the blade I made a couple of passes on my arm and managed to cut a little hair not much. Using it on a piece of timber, I don't think it was quite as sharp as I would have liked, at this point I realised that my combination stone likely had a finer grit level than 600 which is possibly why I didn't get the result I wanted, paired with impatience of course. I'll give it another sharpening once I get the honing compound which should be sometime this week.
In conclusion, I think the plates are a decent buy for £20, in hindsight, I should have bought the fine 1200 grit instead of one of the others. Live and learn. Hope this has been an informative post. If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks
K
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