Thread: A History And Justification For My Diamond Plates

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Ah the joy of non- sticky Atomas

I started to respond to this statement in another thread and decided to make it into an entirely new thread.

Diamond plates are an unnecessary overkill for the very casual honer who can get by with a few sheets of wet/dry sandpaper. They are a great convenience for the honer who feels they want an easier way to lap and, more often, refresh their hones, especially if their number of hones are more than just a few. They are an absolute necessity for the honer who uses a lot of hones on a regular basis.

My first diamond plate was the ubiquitous DMT8C 325 grit. I put that thing through the wringer lapping well over a hundred hones ranging from a nasty hard Chinese hone that took over 20 hours to lap to way too many barber hones before I realized that I was better off not lapping barber hones--especially the extremely hard Carborundums. I managed to avoid stripping the diamonds out of it and it still works after about 7 years. It is slower, but it still works.

Then, since I was doing a lot of lapping I got the DMT8XX 120 grit. It certainly did a much faster job of flattening hones in comparison to the DMT8C, but after a few years it became way less aggressive. It is still faster than my worn DMT8C, but it is much slower than it used to be. The problem was that neither of these HONES were designed by the company to be hone lapping plates. They were designed to be hones and we of the razor forums usurped their purpose and starting using them for hone lapping. We cannot blame the company for our misuse of their product and over the years DMT has been very good about replacing diamond plates that were grossly misused.

Because I fell in love with the Naniwa SuperStones, and had to have every one of them, I wanted the best lapping plate for them. Lynn told me that the Shapton DGLP worked great for them and that I would not regret getting one. He was right. I regretted the price, which was way less than it is now, but I baby that thing and only use it for the refreshing, not lapping, of synthetic water hones above 1k and it shows no sign of wearing out after at least 5 years of use.

Then, DMT came out with a bona fide hone lapping plate and of course I had to have one. The DMT Dia Flat specifically is designed by the company to be a hone lapping plate. It is a 10"x4" 160 grit hone eating monster that will very quickly flatten ANY hone, including the hardest of naturals, and will not be in any peril of losing its diamonds. This is the beast that gets the job done, but it definitely is overkill for the casual hone lapper who is not severely afflicted with a desire for way too many hones.

Next, I had been reading about the Atomas for a couple of years and was intrigued, but was concerned about the way they were designed as a thin diamond plate on the thicker plate. Is seemed like a crappy cheap cop-out design to me but they also seemed to be universally praised. It took me a while, but given the ridiculous number of hones that I have, I finally broke down and got the Atomas a couple of years ago. They are awesome. I like them so much though that I hardly ever actually use them for lapping--only for honing.

The 140 grit is for machetes and heavy knives. Seriously, I currently have two more machetes waiting to be honed!!! I own 5 machetes but neither these two are mine. You know word has gotten out that you like to make things sharp when people are asking you to sharpen their machetes.
The 400 grit is for major razor restoration work and is fantastic at removing steel fast without damage.
The 1200 grit is for minor razor restoration and for follow-up after the 400 atoma.

I do occasionally use the Atomas to very light touch up a hone and they work very well for it. Unlike the DMTs, which have a continuous layer of diamonds, the Atomas have punctate clusters that prevent stiction to the hones. They work very well both for lapping and honing and I use them all the time.

The most recent diamond plate that I bought was at the Ashville meetup a year and a half ago. The Trend diamond plate is a two sided joy with a 300 grit diamond shaped distribution pattern of diamonds on one side and a 1000 grit continuous layer of diamonds on the other side. Because of the distribution pattern of the 300 grit side, it is very efficient at lapping hones without building up swarf that would interfere with lapping in the way that a continuous distribution would. This workhorse plate is the one that I use the most frequently for finish lapping and refreshing of natural hones and for synthetic hones at or below 1k.

In summary, I do admit that I have a problem with hones, but my diamond plates all serve to allow me to make the best use of those hones. If you are going to do much honing, one or two well chosen diamond plates can make your honing a lot easier.