I think I might have got a bad one.
Shapton ceramic stones
I was going to loan my diamond stone to the space. That won’t be necessary. It will be interesting to see if the spaces stone is flatter than mine. It all depends what your perspective is. I want perfection.
I got the trend diamond plate 300/1000 (dead) flat and use 3 micron then 1 micron and finish with a leather strop.
Very quick and for that reason spent most of yesterday getting rid of all microbevels on plane blades and chisels. Everything is set to 25 degrees and I have a bald arm to show effectiveness.
Pairing hardwood endgrain is like cutting balsawood,
Getting great end grain shavings from the shooting board!
Just need to get a couple of 6mm, or 1/4” chisels and turn them into right and left hand skews for dovetails
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So, are you just grinding with one bevel now, and finishing with scary sharp at the same 25 degrees? Trend diamond plates are very good from what I have heard but, they are a product which always seem to be the same price, across the board. Unless you know a place which sells them at a slightly more competitive price. I must admit that since I have spent some decent money on quality stones I should really get a quality diamond plate for flattening etc. I will have a look at the trend.
Mark, I just found out that they sell the trend pro stones as seconds( minor cosmetic flaws) I bought one. All the reviews are good and they do returns. Basically if it’s flat I am keeping it. If it’s not I am sending it back, simple as. It’s the right thing to do because I have invested so much time and effort in my blades, seems stupid buying quality stones and then flattening them on a stone which isn’t flat. The faithfull stone is still useful for some things, but not for me. I am skint now, I blame you haha ha…
It was a ‘second’ one I got from ebay looks perfect to me! Also came with trend lapping fluid cost was £54
Just got my Trend diamond plate. God, this hardly ever happens when buying tools. It’s exactly as advertised, perfectly flat. Worthy of my Shaptons and I would happily back off a blade with the Trend and know I wasn’t screwing up the blade. My faithfull diamond plate will never be going anywhere near the back of my blades or my stones. It’s a site tool, suitable for carpentry I suppose. The Trend is a pro product.
Now I have the Trend diamond plate I have a pro set up which gives me professional results. It’s actually freeing knowing I don’t have to mitigate because of cruddy equipment. Love it.
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I have just sharpened a blade from beginning to end with my improved kit. Flattening the primary bevel ( hollow ground previously) was fast and accurate on the 300 Trend diamond plate. Diamond is way too aggressive in my opinion for the back of a blade whilst the diamond is in the break in phase. I still tried to see the effect with the 1k and as predicted, not a viable solution at present. I flattened the back of the blade as normal with the Shapton 1k and got the majority flat. I don’t need to do this to the same standard as I used to because I use the ruler trick. There is still a tiny amount left to flatten, it will adjust over time, I am not going to chase a couple of mm.
I am still getting used to this new system of stones. The 5k stone leaves a visible scratch pattern which I am not used to seeing. The end result is sharper than previously achieved. I still have some work to do on the chip breaker for this blade. It’s the blade for my back up no5, having an extra plane or blade ready to go is helpful when I want to plough ahead with a task.
