Did I wreck my diaSharp?

I bought a DMT diaSharp 325 to lap flatten a King (800/4000) waterstone I have. The waterstone was slightly bowled. I drew a pencil grid on the 800 side of the King and it took about a hundred medium pressure strokes (with ample water) to flatten it. My diaSharp now has some discoloration that can be seen when looking in the glare of a light. Did I ruin it? or is it detritus? should it be cleaned off?

and secondly, if the diaSharp is a coating of diamond dust bonded to the plate, what keeps the diamond dust from quickly wearing away after a few lappings?

Thanks,
Dave

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Unless you have a defective plate I would say no it is fine. The diamond abrasive is in a nickel plated strata , if I understand it correctly, and as long as you were lapping with plenty of water it should be fine. I use a nylon bristle brush to scrub any swarf off. Take a kitchen knife or whatever and do a few strokes through the areas that are worrying you. You should feel the diamonds bite if they are still there.

Dia sharp recommends a drop or two of dish soap in the water when honing BTW.

The discoloration is normal. I've had it in various colors.
The diamonds are set in nickel. Over it's lifetime, the plate will lose some of the diamonds that protrude beyond their neighbors. Generally speaking, the diamonds' lower half will stick deep enough into the nickel. When you rub something against the stone, the pressure will be distributed amon all diamonds, so the pressure on each individual one is very low.

As long as you don't scrape things over the place with a lot of pressure (like putting your body weight on the tip of a screwdriver and then dragging the tip over the plate) you're not hurting the the plate.

I have been useing the same DMT 325 grit to level my 4 Norton stones and a couple of PHIGS [12K and one 15K] for 3 years now, and not a Bl*#dy problems yet, so don't worry mate, you've got yourself a great leveling stone there, enjoy!!

tinkersd

Mine is discolored and almost looks "worn-out", but I have been told that it's just being broken in...Hey, it works as good as the day i bought it!!

Getting slightly off subject but I have found that 3M Scotchbright works well to clean any stone. It is a plastic scrubbing pad.
Stingray