Diamond Plate Recommendations for Lapping Waterstones

[thauburger]

Hi all,

I know sharpening, and all its variants, often borders on religious affiliation, but I hope this question is specific enough to help channel folks' experience.

I'm getting a waterstone sharpening setup put together, and was wondering if anyone had personal recommendations for a diamond plate specifically for the application of keeping the waterstones flat.

I've seen references to the DMT DiaFlat Lapping Plate, but also understand that to be at least $180+ shipping. Personally, while the precision flatness of that plate is nice, the most attractive part to me is the extra size (10") relative to most waterstones, which I assume would help make the flattening process easier.

Any thoughts on alternatives? Or is that the way to go?

Thanks!

Tom

[AHill]

Atoma 400.  Available at many outlets, including Lee Valley and Tools from Japan.  If you do use a diamond plate for flattening Waterstones, I recommend you use it only for that purpose.  Using it to re-establish bevels on edge tools seems to diminish its effectiveness, regardless of the manufacturer.

[thauburger]

Thanks, AHill. I'll check out the Atoma.

Good tip re: using a plate for dedicated flattening. Makes it even harder to swallow the DMT $180 price tag, if I can't use it on establishing edges as well.

[Steve Friedman]

Agree with Allan about the Atoma, but since getting one in 140 grit, I rarely use the 400 anymore.  Much quicker.  I'm guessing that the stones will get thinner quicker, but they're still likely to outlive me.

I have used the DiaFlat at Lie-Nielsen and it works very well, but is much bigger and heavier.  This is going to be picky, but I usually flatten with the stone in one hand and the diamond plate in the other.  The weight of the DiaFlat would make that harder to do.  Also, when the stone gets flat and the plate gets "sticky," the Atoma is much easier to "unstick."  And that's with the DiaFlat in the L-N showroom which is pretty well worn.  Probably some combination of size, weight, and the pattern of the diamonds.

I love Lee Valley, but if you're not in a hurry, the prices from Japan are significantly cheaper - even with shipping to the U.S.

Steve

[DaveParkis]

I'm another fan of the Atoma 400. Got it as part of a package deal at Tools From Japan. I've been using it for 5 or 6 years now and it's great. I checked them out for a friend a while back and found them at Amazon for about $50. HTH

[Wilbur Pan]

Here's a video showing how I use an Atoma 400 to flatten a waterstone: http://giantcypress.net/post/668546073/j...pened-with

And here's why I like Atoma diamond plates way more than DMT's. http://giantcypress.net/post/41860013521/atoma-bomb

[thauburger]

Thanks, all! Wilbur, great demo video to see the plate in action. I think I'm going to go with the Atoma to get started.

[rwe2156]

I've been using a DMT coarse plate and pretty much wore it out prematurely so I don't recommend that. 

I you get a flattening stone like the one Norton offers, don't expect it to be perfect, BUT you can get it perfect by lapping it with coarse sandpaper on your tablesaw top.  This is what I did and it works good.

I didn't use it for a long time after discovering it wasn't flat.  Then one day I decided to see if I could make if flat.

Yeah, after wearing out my coarse stone......dummy.......

[Blacky's Boy]

Several years ago Wilbur suggested the Atoma stone to me after I told him of I my frustrations the DMT Diamond stone. That was probably the best advise I've gotten. I have been using that Atoma on a regular basis and it works better than I had hoped.

[Mike Brady]

I hesitate to recommend DMT products due to their short lifespan, but the exception would be the Dia-Flat plate specifically made for waterstone flattening.  It just plain gets the job done, and works like the day I got it.  I do think its overpriced.  Have not tried the Atoma.