Immortan D Posted July 15, 2015 Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 For flattening metal, sandpaper on a flat surface is the best choice. It's just to much for a diamond stone, would wear out pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4square Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 I use a cement block and my garage floor to dress my sharpening stones. Both are perfectly flat. Big box stores sell cement block for a couple bucks each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Not to beat a dead horse, but I just took a chisel to concrete today. (Not the same as dressing a stone.) I borrowed my summer boss's which had been used to cut nails Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Maybe wear out wasn't the right verb, but DMT diamond stones will lose sharpening ability when you use them to flatten a hand plane. It did happen to me. And there's another testimony on this very forum about the same thing happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 The biggest problem I see people struggle with on a habitual basis with diamond cutting media is the loading of the cutter. Some plates ask for water lube. I am not a fan. I prefer either water with a tension cutting agent (a few drops of dish soap) or a complete compound like Windex. If you oil your tools, there will be some residual deposit. Abrading steel will leave "sticky" bits. Maybe some other guys have a better path, but those are some observations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 So you are saying flattening a plane soul will ruin the DMT diamonds? After how many times? 1? 10? 50 times? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Only once, but for about 1 hour. Was a 8" coarse dia sharp. It did not ruin it completely but sharpening capacity got very diminished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 The biggest problem I see people struggle with on a habitual basis with diamond cutting media is the loading of the cutter. Some plates ask for water lube. I am not a fan. I prefer either water with a tension cutting agent (a few drops of dish soap) or a complete compound like Windex. If you oil your tools, there will be done residual deposit. Abrading steel will leave "sticky" bits. Maybe some other guys have a better path, but those are some observations. I get excellent results with fewer passes when I use glass cleaning solutions, like Windex, instead of water to sharpen my blades on my DMT stones. Got the idea from Paul Sellers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Only once, but for about 1 hour. Was a 8" coarse dia sharp. It did not ruin it completely but sharpening capacity got very diminished. Wow! That is terrible if that is actually the pretty common result in one plane soul being flattened. As that will be one of my first projects this is interesting. Although that's the dia sharp and not the lapping stone they promote for that but it's gotta be pretty close technology for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxdabroxx Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 I think you'll find that your stones arrive in a courser state than they settle into. I almost don't like using my diamond stones right out of the box, they seem to need the grit knocked down a bit before they settle into consistent state. Maybe that's what he experienced. The change from as they arrive to what they end up as. If it was a graph I think you would see a steep drop off in the first few uses then a plateau after that that is a very gradual change over the course of years. I can still feel that my Duo Sharp is more coarse around the edges and corners than it is in the middle after sharpening 8 or so plane irons. I experienced the same thing with the EZ-Lap brand diamond stones as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan S Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 I think you'll find that your stones arrive in a courser state than they settle into. I almost don't like using my diamond stones right out of the box, they seem to need the grit knocked down a bit before they settle into consistent state. Maybe that's what he experienced. The change from as they arrive to what they end up as. If it was a graph I think you would see a steep drop off in the first few uses then a plateau after that that is a very gradual change over the course of years. My bet is on this as well. This is a common thing for any abrasive, basically the grit crystals fracture and become finer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 ==>I almost don't like using my diamond stones right out of the box, they seem to need the grit knocked down a bit before they settle into consistent state I lap them on a reference plate w/ lapping film for a few minutes out of the box... I've also lapped them on float glass & 240 wet/dry paper... Works wonders... Just once and for about 2 minutes or less -- just kind of speed-break-them-in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Especially since a plane sole casting is about the softest thing to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 You guys Dave and Dan are probably right. The stone is still usable, but takes twice as many passes as it did before the lapping. I found the other thread about another user having a similar experience, with a duo sharp: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Man the latest comments today make the diamond stones sound kinda useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan S Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Man the latest comments today make the diamond stones sound kinda useless. They aren't useless, they are a consumable. I think the #1 issue with diamond stones, is that the general public thinks they will last forever. They have a finite lifespan, and while they will become finer over time, they will never dish, or at least not enough for you to notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 This conversation might be taking the whole task stream of a lapping plate way out of context. If you want to use all diamond honing, buy film and a granite plate. If you use the lapping plate to dress water stones, they will work just as well after thousands of uses. If you want to touch an occasional A-1 bevel, this will work but with diminishing value. Castings will vaporize on old lapping plates making me suspect Daniel got a dud. It happens even with good companies. To expect the lapping plate to do it all is to buy into some marketing hype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 FTR I still use my 4 DMT stones for sharpening my blades and I'm happy with 3 of them (the extra extra fine is useless). I just don't want to replace them with stones that also require maintenance (as in flattening...). But I'm not a honing purist, I always say that, +-4000 grit is all my blades are gonna get from me. FTR Bis, to C. Shaffer, look at my previous post and follow the link, another user shared a similar story, only that his stone was rendered useless after the flattening affair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 @C I want to use my lapping plate for flattening the sole of a plane I have. I'm assuming you won't need to flatten a lie neilson or veritas?? Which would be my next upgrades when I figure out what I need. Flatten the backs of any new chisels I pick up ... Maybe 4-5 total over the next few years. Then flatten my sharpening stones when needed. Does any diamond stone / lapping plate in this thread handle that or is that just too much to ask from it?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Bushwhacked, I would not lap a plane sole on this plate for one, and only one reason. It is too small. When I lap a plane sole, I now prefer a long belt of paper. This is simply much faster. Cast loads the paper (and the diamond plates.) No biggie, discard the paper. The plate will do it. I do block planes on a DMT. I just don't want anyone to be disillusioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Right now I have a block plane I plan on lapping and 2 chisels. I don't think I need to flatten new sharpening stones do I? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 ==>flatten new sharpening stones do I Just like chisels, plane irons, etc -- waterstones are not flat out of the box... But it'll take only one minute or less on a diamond plate... Watch some of the DMT demo videos -- it's really 30 seconds and done -- nothing fancy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan S Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Right now I have a block plane I plan on lapping and 2 chisels. I don't think I need to flatten new sharpening stones do I?Depends on the type of stone, and what you are doing with it. Some stones need/should be flattened before each session, some will need it multiple times during each session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Staehling Posted July 17, 2015 Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 This thread got me thinking about an old medium Arkansas stone that had seen 30 years of knife sharpening with no flattening and was VERY concave on both sides before I stopped using it a few years ago. I started to flatten it on a coarse diamond plate and realized it would take days to get this particular stone flat again. I looked up, saw the bench top belt sander, and decided to try it. It worked pretty quickly and the stone was like new in a few minutes. That treatment would probably be overkill for most stone flattening, but it worked really well in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim DaddyO Posted July 17, 2015 Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 Getting a bit complicated for a simple procedure such as sharpening. It always does. Watch Paul Sellers vid on making a box for an oil stone. Way back when, the stones were never flattened and all of them developed concavity. Of course those Chippendale guys and all the others a couple hundred years ago weren't making much to talk about though, you may want to do some fine work instead (sarcasm). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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