Hand Tools Archive
Patrick Chase
Glad it worked. A couple remarks:
Now you see why a lot of us only use diamond plates to flatten stones. Diamonds are a terrific medium, particularly for working "difficult" steels, but diamond plates in particular (as opposed to diamond lapping films or diamond compounds) are compromised in several ways.
First, the Nickel-electroplating process used to bond the diamonds to the plate makes it difficult to achieve uniform cutting point height (though some makers do better than others). In contrast with a friable stone like your Shaptons a point that sticks up too high falls out quickly, leaving a uniform surface. Also Shapton seems to do a better job of abrasive-grading (ensuring that all particles are similarly sized) than does DMT, and the result of both is that they cut a lot more smoothly.
Second, plates only have a single layer of edges, and they start to wear out fairly quickly. In my experience that's when the plate starts feeling "dead". In contrast the stones are continuously exposing fresh abrasive and tend to maintain a better feel, though obviously this is totally subjective.
One note on your specific stones: The Shapton Pro #320 has a notably hard binder, and doesn't expose fresh abrasive very quickly. It works well on HCS, but glazes over and stops cutting in short order on more difficult/exotic steels in my experience. I'd recommend PSA sandpaper on glass for those situations.
Messages In This Thread
- flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- Another possibility presents itself......
- What a great thread this has been.....
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- a little bit the Indian and a little bit arrow
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- which side to use?
- Quick and dirty summary:
- Atoma - $64
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- Re: flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- A different perspective *LINK*
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- My thoughts
- CBN and grit
- The flat wheel surface - or not..
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- The flat wheel surface - or not..
- My Opinion...
- My thoughts
- Re: A different perspective
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- lapping film?
- Re: flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- Diamond plates......
- Flattening
- Re: flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- Re: flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- Re: flattening Waterstones- shapton pro
- What a great thread this has been.....
- Another possibility presents itself......