Trend Diamond Cross Sharpening Plates

[woodhutt]

I recently (6 months ago) bought a 300/1000 Trend DC plate and have been using it quite happily and successfully. I have noted, however, that the side marked 1000 removes appreciably more steel faster than the side marked 300.
Both sides have had reasonably even use.
Could it be that the sides have been mislabeled?
The labeling appears to be engraved into the steel plate to which the abrasive is attached but I don't know enough about the manufacturing process to guess if the coatings have been wrongly applied.
Any ideas? It's not a big issue, I simply have to reverse the honing process, but I'm curious. :?:
Pete

 

[Wilfage]

Hi
I don't know if this helps or not but I have the same plate and i know you are supposed to clean it regularly with the rubber that should have been provided. Plus the two sides of mine look distinctively different so I think it should be easy to tell which is which. Another thing I have noticed recently that both sides of mine are nowhere near as abrasive as when it was new. To the point where Im actually looking to replace mine now. Hope this helps!

 

[woodhutt]

Thanks Wilfage. Yes, I clean the plate after every use with the eraser. The two sides do look different but there is no getting away from the evidence of all the tool steel that comes off when using the side marked 1000 as opposed to the lack of it on the 300 side.
I have to confess, though that I did give the 300 side a hammering when trying to restore the bevel on a thick blade from an old wooden bodied plane. Maybe I exhausted it.
Pete

 

[Doug71]

I had a Trend double sided stone that wore out quickly, got it replaced FOC but the new one was just as bad, that was a few years ago though.

On a similar note I bought a Trend door hinge jig a few years ago, for the life of me I could not figure out how to use it. I called the Trend helpline and they told me that a batch had been drilled the wrong way round at one end #-o, I got sent a replacement which works as it should.

 

[Mike Jordan]

I bought a spindle moulder block from Trend which was obviously faulty, I photographed the item and sent the pic with an email requesting that it be sorted. I got a return email saying that it looked as if the block had done a lot of work and it was high time I purchased a new one! When told it was fresh out of he box they replaced it with out further sales efforts. I now buy locally and try not to buy Chinese gear.

 

[woodhutt]

Thanks for the responses all.
I might suck it up and buy new plates. Any recommendations?
Pete

 

[D_W]

atoma if you want something that will last a long time, but they're one sided. The diamonds are arranged in piles on them and they feel different, but the diamonds don't get ripped right off of the plate.

to my understanding, the trend plates are just chinese milled plates marked way up. razor board folks didn't find them as flat as they thought they would be and they cost more than western made plates.

So either buy DMD or some generic chinese brand on ebay for a fourth or fifth of the price, or get atoma. There are other decent hones like ezelap, but I can't imagine they'll be a reasonable price over there.

(ultex comes to mind there, too). What I've tried of all of those plates, regardless of brand, is that they last about the same. Some of the $20 two sided plates can be a couple of thousandths out of flat, but they're otherwise just as good as anything with an expensive brand slapped on it but made in china).

looked up the "lapping fluid", too, and it's just mineral spirits and heavy naptha (evaporates more slowly than light naptha) mixed about 60/40 and sold for a super high price. Not a real fan of their practices.

 

[RWood]

Paul Sellers has several videos about diamond plates on his YouTube channel - some good practical views on the merits of different plates.

 

[owen]

Trend must have a bloody good marketing team, because they seem to do well selling inferior products at high prices. I try and avoid buying trend where possible. Even my two piece trend hinge jig need a hole elongating to make it sit straight. The trend t4 router I bought just to use with the hinge jig is pants,the height lock barely works and the lead is barely a meter long. Have to use a small extension lead just to reach the top hinge on a door frame.