Chefknivestogo Forums

Greetings,
I'm curious if anyone has experience using a DMT diamond plate to flatten their stones. I have a Norton flattening stone that works fine for the cheaper and coarser stones, but I'm thinking about picking up some of the Shapton glass stones and want to keep those maintained and wasn't sure the norton was up to the task. Since I already have a coarse/extra-course DuoSharp, I thought it might do the trick. Any thoughts?

Hi there Mr Byrd & welcome to the forum.

I used this plate for 2 to 3 years and it worked just fine. Its something to do little & often and I always flatten just prior to sharpening. I did find that once the DMT plate started to wear a bit, flattening took a bit longer. Come back if you have any more Q's or want a run down on technique.

Thanks for sharing your experience Grant, and thanks for the kind welcome. Were you using the full-diamond stones or the ones with the "dot" pattern like the Duosharp. I've seen people use fully-coated diamond stones for flattening, but never the diamond stones with the sort of texture you find on the dotted DMTs.

I prefer an Atoma 140 for flattening. With synthetic stones, I rinse and go from here. With naturals, I move on to a DMT course for lapping prior to sharpening, and, depending on the stone, lap with other naturals prior to sharpening. I am always modifying my progressions but this is where I have landed for now. I have worn out a DMT Xtra course in much less time than the Atoma 140. That, with the lesser price, makes the Atoma stand out as a better value for me as a flattening plate.

DMT have other diamond plates that are more targeted at flattening stones. I agree with J david that the Atoma plates are better & I use a 140 & 400 for both my freehand & EP stones.

Mr Byrd already has a DMT duo, so i would say its well worth trying this out first. If your stones are not in good shape to start with, the duo may just become too painful, which may prompt a move to something newer & more aggressive.

HTH