Bill Tindall
No metal shavings to be seen and I certainly didn't clean this up before photographing it. Also, the diamond density is high suggesting few if any were undermined and lost.

I was on the way to a class where I thought I might need to sharpen so I dropped the plate into my tool bag. Had opportunity to get its picture and seized it. So what you see is typical.

I lube with about a 10% solution of some water soluble cutting fluid that remained in a huge plastic cube I bought from a metal fabricator. The fluid makes a slippery solution and it just "feels" right on the plate.

The bottom line is that this plate has experienced several years of use sharpening CPM 3V tools. Furthermore, the class was with Will Neptune who uses a similar plate for similar sharpening. And, Will said they used diamond plates at the North Bennett school. And when Mary May taught the carving class she used a diamond plate for sharpening.

While "your" results may vary using these plates for other tasks, many people are finding a diamond plate an effective, inexpensive means of sharpening in that intermediate range of edge preparation.