WATCH THIS before you buy diamond stones for tool/knife sharpening!

hi I'm James Hamilton from stumpy nubs woodworking journal and today we'll answer some of the most common questions people ask about diamond sharpening stones I know our craft is full of strange and diverse personalities but there's some lunatics out there who actually enjoy sharpening their tools they save all their blunt chisels and playing irons until the end of the day then they hone them in some giant moment of Zen I believe we should keep people like that away from sharp objects to me there are a few tasks in the workshop as mind-numbingly tedious as sharpening luckily we live in the modern era where we can find any number of products designed to make the task easier today I want to talk about diamond sharpening plates or stones perhaps they are in a big mystery to you but for a lot of people they're confusing as heck here are some of the questions they may come up in your hunt for the right diamond stone I think it's a matter of opinion but for me it comes down to two things they're easy to maintain and they work quickly unlike traditional stones a diamond plate doesn't become dished out as you use it that means you don't have to reflect it between uses and since diamonds are the hardest material on earth they cut steel fast they can even be used to sharpen carbide router bits and cutters nope all the stones I have ever used are covered with man-made micro diamonds there are a couple of different processes that may be used to create them but it generally involves chemicals gases carbon and heat diamonds are literally grown on a substrate in a special chamber then they're sifted to separate them by grit size and then they're attached to a plate for your sharpening convenience yep some Diamond stones use what are called poly crystalline diamonds while others use mono crystalline diamonds the surface of polycrystalline diamonds are very rough they're covered with all these tiny points and sharp edges these edges fracture away during use which expose new edges this is great for fine polishing pastes but not so much with diamond sharpening stones because the diamonds get smaller as they break up so you're 300 grit stone will quickly become something that's entirely different over time that's why the better quality diamond stones are made with monocrystalline diamonds these are more expensive to produce but they maintain their size and shape during use for a very long absolutely it does cheaper brands merely sprinkle the diamonds onto a layer of adhesive problem with this method is that the overall stone is only as good as the quality of the adhesive so they usually have a very short lifespan those of these diamond stones that you get alike Harbor Freight in places like that good diamond stones are electroplated a metal plate is dipped into a solution of heated nickel and diamonds then an electrical current is passed through the solution which causes it to bond with the plate this process actually embeds about two-thirds of the diamond in the nickel layer making it very difficult to remove they're kind of like little icebergs with just the points sticking out electroplated diamond stones have a far longer lifespan than those made with adhesives the least expensive diamond stones feature diamonds embedded or glued to a thin metal plate which is then in turn attached to a plastic block these are moulded usually not machined flat others attach their thin metal plate to a thicker metal base but frankly it still defeats the whole purpose a good diamond plate should be a single plate of Steel it should be precisely flat less than a thousandth of an inch from end to end because the process of embossing the Diamonds will slightly decrease the level of flatness the plate itself should be machined to about five ten thousandths of an inch if you hope to achieve a thousandth of an inch in the end product only then can you be sure that it will be flat and only by creating the stone from a single piece of steel can you be sure adhesives and moisture and corrosion won't affect that flatness over time some companies say you can use their stones dry while this won't harm the diamonds it's rarely a good idea in my opinion as material is removed from your blade it has to go somewhere a lubricant will carry it away so that it won't build up between the diamonds which would quickly cause them to stop cutting you can if you have a cheap plastic one but we've already talked about why those stones aren't worth your time some companies recommend water I really think that's a bad idea and I'm not alone in that theory it's never a good idea to introduce water into metal unless you're absolutely sure you can get it lately dry every time that's easy with a chisel or a planer iron because you can just wipe it dry but it's not so easy with diamond stones water's likely to remain deep inside the grit or even seep into any tiny cracks and the nickel used to embed the diamonds getting between that steel substrate and the diamonds themself can lead to corrosion where you definitely don't want that problem is compounded if your stone has layers instead of being just one plate because guess where that moisture is going to go over time between the layers which is going to compromise this flatness that depends fine stones like a thousand grit feature diamonds that are about fifteen microns in size but about two-thirds of that diamond is embedded in the stone that means that the valley is between your diamonds are only about five microns deep now according to the material safety data sheet for wd-40 it leaves a film of 17 microns needless to say that's thicker than the valleys are deep so while light oils like wd-40 or even kerosene may be fine for very coarse stones they're too thick for fine stones your iron is just going to skid across the top and it's not going to sharpen effectively I used the trend lapping fluid it was developed by the engineering industry decades ago specifically for Diamond abrasives it's a petroleum product so there's no risk of rust yet it's also water soluble so it's easy to clean up and it's just the right consistency if I had one complaint is that the fluid is a little bit pricey but a very small bottle is gonna last you a long time I know some people like to poopoo this whole thing and they say just use the wd-40 or the kerosene or the water but all I know is for a couple of cents per use I know my diamond is going to be cutting at peak performance with the lapping fluid I use a three hundred grit stone to create a new bevel and then I follow up with thousand grit and then as a final step I use a leather strop to polish the edge why three hundred one thousand because those happen to be the two grits on my double-sided stone frankly it doesn't matter as much as you think three hundred grit is nice because it works faster than say 600 but it's not so coarse that you'll have to spend all day on the thousand grit side to remove all those 300 grit scratches a thousand grit is sharp enough especially if you follow it up with the strop I know some people really like to fuss over their grits and water stones can go up into the tens of thousands but what is an abrasive material and after a couple of strokes your twenty thousand grit edge is going to be worn down to that thousand grit anyway if a thousand grit followed by a light strapping is enough to shave hair off your arms it's sharp enough to shave wood fibers yep these things aren't cheap so why buy more than you need of course there are some great diamond accessories on the market for special applications and I use them as needed in fact we've made a couple of videos recently about how to sharpen router bits and Forstner bits things like that you can find those videos over at stubby nubs calm but generally straight edge tools and a lot of other things can be sharpened with just one double-sided stone and a leather strop the bottom line is if you sharpen your tools by hand you may want to check into Diamond stones they require almost no maintenance and they cut faster if you do decide to buy Diamond stones insist that they're made with monocrystalline diamonds that are electroplated to the surface of a single piece of machined steel no glue no layers also avoid using your stones dry stay away from water and if you're fine grits are cutting slowly it's probably the type of lubricant that you're using finally you can get by with just one stone three hundred grit and grit or something similar and a leather strop for just about every woodworking tool thanks for watching I hope you learned something be sure to check out the latest issue of stumpy nubs woodworking journal which is full of great tips tricks and tutorials designed to make you a better woodworker you can read and subscribe for free at stumpy tubs calm happy honing

Channel: Stumpy Nubs

Views: 1,042,027

Rating: 4.8091254 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, stumpy nubs, trend

Id: zBND6emsSE4

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 30 2017