Monster Stone

[Ttrees]

Diamond sharpening plates that are bonded to a thick steel plate just like the fancy ones.
Just over a tenner plus 5 quid postage for the single sided ones.
Saves you having to bond them to a flat plate.
You have to be in the UK to order one it seems

 

[Osvaldd]

i just did a search on it, looks neat. delivery to my location is a bit much though at £12

 

[Osvaldd]

Seems like ITS is the only shop selling these diamond plates. Anyone live near one of their shops?

 

[ED65]

Never tired the India, which I've heard is the fastest typical oil stone you can get.

Cyrstolons and other SiC stones should be much faster, although cheaper SiC stones can be very friable (and they drink oil if not sealed by the user). But even Crystolon may not be fast by other standards.

i just did a search on it, looks neat. delivery to my location is a bit much though at £12

Plates are widely available on AliExpress with free shipping, under a fiver into your hand. This is the buy-right option I mention above.

These are the thin plates, which can of course be epoxied to anything the user likes but they work fine as-is. I just slip my fine one out of its sleeve, clamp down, hone, then put it away. I'm done before most people using a Veritas jig can get past stage two of their process :mrgreen:

These are available in a much wider range of grits than any brand name, e.g. 80 to 3,000 with maybe 10 steps in between. I mention this just to have the opportunity to say you don't need most of the ones in between. The middling grits are a bit meh, they're perfectly usable but not the things to pick for maximum utility. The two extremes are where diamond plates really shine, say 150 and below and 1,000 and above.

If you're happy with what you currently use at the fine end just get a coarse, or buy two to cover pretty much all your needs. A 120 or 150 and a 1,000 make a great pairing, beat the pants off any commercial combination stone in any media that I'm aware of.

 

[Osvaldd]

Are these aliexpress diamond plates really any good? I would assume that with these cheap ones diamond particles are glued and thus they don't last. The Ultex one looks to be a proper electroplated diamond plate. Am I wrong?

 

[ED65]

Are these aliexpress diamond plates really any good?

Well I can't speak to every one obviously but I have two, bought separately and widely apart and both are holding up great. Numerous others members have similar.

My fine one is shown at the start of this thread, Your cheapest honing setup? **buying new only** It's three years on and it still looks much the same.

A fine plate like this punches well above its weight in terms of honing speed because diamonds are so much harder than anything else used on flat sharpening media. Although silicon carbide seems close in hardness from some hardness tables this is misleading, diamond is actually over three times as hard as SiC.

I would assume that with these cheap ones diamond particles are glued and thus they don't last.

I think all diamond plates are made the same way, the diamonds secured in place by a nickel plating.

 

[Ttrees]

I'd rather just tack down a pair of wee strips on a sheet of ply for the thick steel plate types.
I have the thin cheap ones also, and I use them for other things, as I thought gluing the rubber bases on a base made of something might introduce some inconsistency.
Can't say they have not held up and are still cutting as well, so definitely really good value.
That's why I think its worth the extra few quid to get nice ones.

 

[Osvaldd]

I took the plunge and spent a fiver on two diamond plates, 400g and 1000g
They are a bit smaller than I expected, 150mm x 50mm.
The Ultex ones are a bit bigger but the cost plus shipping at £25 for one plate, I just can't justify that kind of money at the moment.

 

[Ttrees]

Nothing wrong with a small sharpening plate though.

 

[ED65]

Yes smaller is fine. 150 x 50 is 6" x 2" in old money, that's perfectly sufficient. 2" has long been a standard stone width. Although longer is considered desirable it is not essential and this is especially the case with diamonds.

You did very well on that price Osvaldd, but 400# is in the middling no-man's land of limited utility. I hope you'll find a use for it but my experience is that it's just not needed for day-to-day honing of chisels and plane irons. And it's not nearly rough enough for super-fast material removal for edge repairs or reprofiling.

 

[Osvaldd]

I just couldn't find anything coarser.

 

[Ttrees]

Anything coarser than the Washita isn't necessary as the bench grinder will take care of the rest for me.
I would want a finer stone for finishing and I love the diamond stones for that, and would never use those flimsy
things for finishing the back of a plane iron or chisel.
Ultex don't make a finer one than the super fine unfortunately,
I have a really worn in fancy Dia-sharp 1800g one that produces a mirror finish, much better than the scratchy polish than a 4000g waterstone, but it costs 50 dollars.
I wonder how well of a polish they give compared?
Suppose it all depends if you would touch the back of your plane iron or chisel with a strop.
Unthinkable for some

 

[ED65]

I just couldn't find anything coarser.

If you want to try something really coarse and fast at some point here's one of the suppliers:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33029766707.html

For anyone else in the market at the moment they're 45% off at time of writing. The range is from 80 to 3,000 with 13 intermediate grits.

Anything coarser than the Washita isn't necessary as the bench grinder will take care of the rest for me.

This isn't an either/or proposition. There are things both can do the other can't, either at all or not as easily.

...would never use those flimsy things for finishing the back of a plane iron or chisel.

They work fine. And like I said they don't have to be used like I use mine, they can be glued (or taped I guess) to a dead-flat substrate if desired. I planned on doing this, just realised I didn't need to so never bothered

 

[Ttrees]

My text disappeared :roll:
I was just saying that a reasonably aggressive oilstone will suffice if your sharpening freehand.
Provided the heel is going to have the clearance for a plane iron so it does not contact the work.

I think a washita is certainly aggressive enough unless one uses a honing guide, with a blade with a fixed projection.
Not that it makes sense, but I would deem a single washita faster to sharpen a plane iron
at a honing angle that's the full width of af a Bailey cutter,
Compared with using the honing guide on an iron which already has a primary bevel,
and secondary bevel that is a third of the width of the cutter.

Those hones look the ticket for someone who wants to stick to honing guides for now though.
Do you use them for your primary bevels ED65?
If so what grits ya use?

Tom

 

[ED65]

I was just saying that a reasonably aggressive oilstone will suffice if your sharpening freehand.

Oh certainly. Everything works. All any of us are doing is picking, from the available options, what suits our pocket, temperament, tolerance for mess (dry, watery, oily) and if we're honest with ourselves, even romantic notions.

Do you use them for your primary bevels ED65?

What's a primary? One smooth bevel for me on virtually everything.

I don't use the coarsest plate I have (a 150) for honing, it's for reshaping and repair work, i.e. mainly for prepping car boot buys.

Edit: In case it's not clear from what I've written above I go straight to a 1,000 from the 150. This will sound to some like way too big a jump but it's not, because honing is not sanding.