Flattening EP stones- diamond plates vs. Ben’s method

[Delphonic]

Is there any reason not to use a diamond plate? Are there any advantages to sticking with bands loose grit on glass? Ben’s methods works fine. It’s just less convenient. But for all I know it may get the stones flatter.

[Delphonic]

How flat could a sheet of glass be though? Even the cheapest diamond plates Mark sells seem to be truly flat to a degree unmatched by most glass one might use to flatten EP stones, no?

[Radar53]

Hi Del,

my understanding is that plate glass is pretty damn flat.
I have always used diamond plates for flattening both EP stones and full sized freehand stones. As in previous posts I use 140 grit for up to 1k stones and 400 grit above that. It's way more convenient and I would say a lot more accurate than the glass plate method ~ could be wrong here.

Cross hatch the EP stone with pencil, use light pressure, vary between backwards & forwards strokes & figure 8's. Do this until the pencil marks disappear. Come back if you need more details on technique.

[ken123]

Glass plates are quite flat and would be OK to use for flattening, but will they stay that way when being ground down with silicon carbide loose grit? Also diamond is a much harder abrasive. I would stick to diamond plates for stone flattening.

---
Ken

[Otaku19]

I have predominately used the silicone carbide and glass plate method and I can say that over time the glass will also dish. I can get thin glass at a local hardware store for just a few dollars and use both sides compared to the price of diamond plates. Diamond plates are much more convenient if you have the extra money for them.

[Delphonic]

Is any one diamond plate grit well suited to flatten the full range of stones? Mark has the a low grit single sided one and a two sided higher- grits model. Would I need both or can I get by with just one? Thanks.

[Delphonic]

One is the 140 grit vs. 400/1000 grit on the double-sided plate.

[Otaku19]

I don't remember what article I read a few years ago but it showed the results after flattening a 10k chosera with a 140 grit diamond and a 1k diamond plate. The 140 grit flattened stone was coarser than the 1k but after a few sharpening passes, the 10k smoothed out. The 400 grit combo diamond stone might not be coarse enough if you have stones that are lower in grit size than the 400. You also have to be very careful if you flatten any stones with the higher grit diamond plates. You can get a lot of suction between the stone and the diamond plate which can rip out the diamonds.

[David_R]

I've tried both. I generally used diamond plates for my EP stones, silicon carbide stones, and Shapton Glass stones. I only use the EP sand for my EP diamond matrix stones. They're a different animal.

[Delphonic]

I've tried both. I generally used diamond plates for my EP stones, silicon carbide stones, and Shapton Glass stones. I only use the EP sand for my EP diamond matrix stones. They're a different animal.

David— what’s your take on the matrix stones? I’m debating upgrading from stock EP stones, and shapton, nubatama, and diamond matrix are all tempting to me.

[Otaku19]

I've tried both. I generally used diamond plates for my EP stones, silicon carbide stones, and Shapton Glass stones. I only use the EP sand for my EP diamond matrix stones. They're a different animal.

David— what’s your take on the matrix stones? I’m debating upgrading from stock EP stones, and shapton, nubatama, and diamond matrix are all tempting to me.

If they're anything like the Venev bonded diamond stones, they'll be fantastic. I have the 6 stone set in the Venev bonded diamond stones and I was very impressed with the polish after working the full progression. Here's a video from Michael Christy on the Venev stones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpUP8lP6ilg

[David_R]

I've tried both. I generally used diamond plates for my EP stones, silicon carbide stones, and Shapton Glass stones. I only use the EP sand for my EP diamond matrix stones. They're a different animal.

David— what’s your take on the matrix stones? I’m debating upgrading from stock EP stones, and shapton, nubatama, and diamond matrix are all tempting to me.

Apologies for the very late reply. The matrix stones are fantastic. They have completely transformed my sharpening on high carbide steels (S35VN, K390, M390, etc). They cut and finish very well. You do need to dress these differently and you'll need at least 2 different grits of sand to dress these. But you can dress them infrequently and it's easy to do.

For typical kitchen steels up to VG-10 or similar, they're good but not necessary. For really high carbide stuff they are game-changers. I have some of the Venev EP stones and I prefer the EP stones. The guy who makes the stones for EP is also on bladeforums.com and is happy to answer questions and give advice. That's a big advantage to me.

[d_rap]

Same experience. EP Diamond Matrix are superb.

Overkill for anything like the hitachis or vg10, but similar to the venevs (I have the phoenix) just fantastic with the super steels.