Ezelap green plastic

[Kristoffer Frederiksen]

I am in the market for a new set of sharpening stones. Currently I am using an india combo followed by a black ark and strop but I want a setup that will handle modern steels as well. After browsing around I have settled the spydercos m and uf however I would like some diamond stones for bevel setting and maintenance of the spydercos.

People on here seems to be fond of the ezelaps so I thought about getting a coarse and a fine. I cannot find the regular ones available in europe, however the green plastic combos are readily available. So here comes my question, does anyone have experience with them? And are they as flat as the metal-backed kind?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

If it were me, I would probably purchase the ATOMA diamond plates.

For sharpening in general, this seems to be popular

http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=335_404_403&products_id=1667

if I stayed with water stones and I expected the newer steels, I would probably just go to the Power Select II stones. If I stayed with Diamonds, I would go with these

http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=335_462_464
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=70346&cat=1,43072

I only mention it since I see mixed reviews on the EZ Lap plates, but I don't remember ever seeing anyone complaining about the atoma. I own neither. I have DMT plates and they work for my uses, but, I mostly sharpen using water stones. I had some pretty deep scratches from the diamond plates. of course, that was years ago. No idea what would happen if I tried now.

This might be useful:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?208343-Eze-Lap-Diamond-Stone-Flatness-Am-I-expecting-too-much

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?239973-EZE-Lap-Diamond-Stones-Wearing-Prematurely

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?234586-My-experience-so-far-with-the-new-600-Eze-lap-Diamond-Med-Spyderco-and-UF-Spyderco

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?217960-comparing-diamonds-to-stones

Be sure to let us know what you choose to do.

[Lenore Epstein]

I haven't tried Eze Lap stones, but here's my experience with just about all the others. After quickly blowing out an X-coarse Diasharp DMT flattening a few chisel backs I bought an Atoma 400 and an iWood 150, the latter from toolsfromjapan.com (http://toolsfromjapan.com). I primarily use them to flatten waterstones, but have used both to grind chips out of edges without seeing any sign of wear--quite different from the Diasharp, which started to break down as soon as I started flattening a chisel back.

The Atoma is an excellent stone, but if you're on a budget, the iWood is cheaper even when shipping from Japan is included (about $46), and is almost as good, although it probably won't last as long. And both the Atoma and iWood are flatter and have much better construction (no gaps, scratches, or clumps of diamonds) than DMTs.

HTH

[Kristoffer Frederiksen]

Thanks for the replies. I have also had back experiences with DMT, it cuts a lot slower but still leaves deep scratches.

I like what I have read about Derek Cohens and David Barnetts experiences with the EZE-lap 600, so I think it will be one of those for burr raising and an atoma 140 for flattening the ceramics.