Diamond plates from Aliexpress. Any good?

[albsat]

Hello,

Has anyone bought a diamond plate from Aliexpress? Just want to know if they are not money waisted for garbage. I am based in East Europe and I can source items easily from Aliexpress.

Cheers

 

[johnb65]

I bought one a few years ago and used it for flattening my stones I don't know is it did a great job but it was all that I had at the time. I have since bought an Atoma and the Aliexpress one I use for my kitchen knives.
I think it is best to buy as good as possible but you can always make do with wet and dry on a flat surface if money is tight.

 

[rbscebu]

I have used both wet & dry sandpaper on ceramic tile and diamond plate from AliExpress. I couldn't notice a difference in the results between the two. I have not tried an expensive western diamond plate.

Which plate are you thinking of getting from AliExpress?

 

[albsat]

I wanted to get the 600/1200 diamond plate from here.

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005003151468157.html

I have read en excellent thread here from @Seraphim where his stone setup was :

DTM plate 600/1200
Films 3/1 um
Pasted strop

I find this setup easy to build for me. I am waiting for my first (ugly) straight razor to arrive in days. It will come with a basic strop plus a crox balsa wood.

 

[rbscebu]

@albsat, I appreciate the difficulties you may have in sourcing high grade honing supplies. I was in the same situation when living in the Philippines. Then I settled on two Chinese synthetic whetstones 400/1000 and 3000/8000. From those I would then move onto 3μm and 1μm films.

The plates will work but I am not sure if they would be suitable "as is". Their size is 152mm x 64mm x 3mm thick. 152mm x 64mm is a rather small size to learn honing on. The 3mm thickness could mean that they may not stay flat while being used.

The 3mm thinness can be overcome by glueing each plate to a piece of ceramic tile for stiffness and then glueing some lightweight timber to the underside of the tile pieces to get the overall thickness up to about 20mm or more.

If you can find on AliExpress similar ones about 200mm x 70mm that are within your budget, you will find that size much easier to use.

Your jump from 1200 to 3μm is a bit large. Perhaps you should consider including a 5μm and/or 9μm film before going to the 3μm.

I'm not a great fan of pasted hanging strops, but others like using them as a finisher.

 

[luv2shave]

They look similar to that chef knives to go sell as their branded product. Same source ?

 

[rbscebu]

I still use my Chinese synthetic whetstones in my normal honing progressions. The 400 is only used when heavy honing is required. Bevels are roughly set on 1k before final bevel-set is done on 3k. From there it is onto the films and my diamond pasted balsa strops.

Recently I purchased an Adaee 12000 natural whetstone on AliExpress that has (after a lot of learning) been giving me good results in finishing straight from the 8k synthetic. You can read all about is here:

My First Natural Finish

This morning I received a Chinese natural (Cnat) by Adaee. They rate it at about 12k. It's a monster at 30mm x 75mm x 200mm with a specific gravity of 2.77. Why this stone? The only reason is ecause it was within my budget at about USD 50 including shipping. The stone had mixed reviews. Some...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[albsat]

@albsat, I appreciate the difficulties you may have in sourcing high grade honing supplies. I was in the same situation when living in the Philippines. Then I settled on two Chinese synthetic whetstones 400/1000 and 3000/8000. From those I would then move onto 3μm and 1μm films.

The plates will work but I am not sure if they would be suitable "as is". Their size is 152mm x 64mm x 3mm thick. 152mm x 64mm is a rather small size to learn honing on. The 3mm thickness could mean that they may not stay flat while being used.

The 3mm thinness can be overcome by glueing each plate to a piece of ceramic tile for stiffness and then glueing some lightweight timber to the underside of the tile pieces to get the overall thickness up to about 20mm or more.

If you can find on AliExpress similar ones about 200mm x 70mm that are within your budget, you will find that size much easier to use.

Your jump from 1200 to 3μm is a bit large. Perhaps you should consider including a 5μm and/or 9μm film before going to the 3μm.

I'm not a great fan of pasted hanging strops, but others like using them as a finisher.

Excellent information man. I appreciate it.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yes, online import plates work just fine, I tested a bunch of similar plates years ago and they all hone and lapped a lot of stones just fine, except for HF plates, those are rough, good for axes and garden tools, but not fine honing and stone lapping.

As with all Diamond plates you must not abuse them, do not use a lot of pressure and keep the plates flooded with water or use under running water when lapping.

If you over-load the plate, you will rip out the diamonds, this can happen with even brand name plates. For honing knives, tools and razors I use Windex in a squirt bottle.

When you think a plate is dead, a quick scrub with Bar Keepers Friend will surprise you.

The problem with most of these import plates is they are short and will not lap 8-inch stones well.

Diamonds cut deep and leave deep stria, I agree from diamond 1k something between 3um,(5-7k) would make your life easier.

If money is an issue, you cannot beat a King 1/6k combo stone, then jump to film.

 

[Steve56]

If you over-load the plate, you will rip out the diamonds, this can happen with even brand name plates.

I ruined an Atoma 1200 years ago by doing this - once hosed, it continued to frequently spit out pieces of coarse ‘stuff’. It still gets use in the garage for ‘non-critical’ tools.

 

[luv2shave]

What's the life of a diamond plate anyway assuming not abused. How many stone lappings can we get from say a dmt coarse plate, assuming we are not honemeisters

 

[albsat]

If money is an issue, you cannot beat a King 1/6k combo stone, then jump to film.

What would be the setup in this case;.. King 1/6k, film 3 and 1 um?

I guess I would need a lapping plate also for that stone?

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

“What's the life of a diamond plate anyway assuming not abused. How many stone lappings can we get from say a dmt coarse plate, assuming we are not honemeisters”

Years, I have lapping plates, brand name and no name that are over 15 year old and have lapped thousands of stones, when you consider I lap a stone 2-3 times while honing. At least to begin with and for the final laps on that stone. So, 2-3 lappings X 3 stones 6-9 lappings per razor.

I have a couple 140 grit stones that I have abused that are still cutting and are wellover 10 years old.



Yea, 3um is about 8k, depends on which film you are using. You could go straight to 1um, try it.

Most guys start with film and eventually go to stones, especially if you end up honing a lot of razors. Film is good to maintain a razor or two or as just a finisher.

When I use film, I go from a near mirror 8k to 1um, 3M film from Thorlabs, Alumina, .3um and Aluminum Oxide, 1 & 3um.

You can lap a stone on a sheet of 220, but a diamond plate will find a lot of uses and a $30, 400/1000 plate will make life much easier.

 

[Steve56]

I guess I would need a lapping plate also for that stone?

You need a way to keep it flat, Kings are soft stones, but it doesn’t have to be a lapping plate. Sandpaper on a flat surface, granite, marble, plate glass will work fine.