Trend diamond plate

[Jack Dover]

If you are comparing them to the 300\1000 waterstone - they are different grit charts.

In general diamonds are slow. 300 isn't a coarse grit, it's closer to a medium range. 1000 is definitely in the fine range and should just polish, won't be fast either. In fact if you chase the burr off on the 1000 side it will shave quite finely, some people wouldn't even strop after 1000-1200 plate.

Sometimes the plating wears off for whatever reasons. A quick check is to rub a piece of glass and inspect scratches, you should see a cloudy spot where you rubbed. Any glass works - a beer bottle, etc.

I went away from diamond plates a while ago. Recently pulled my set out and for a few minutes was also thinking they stopped cutting - diamonds are THIS slow. In a few hours I have adjusted back though. It's curious how many people say "diamonds are slow" but they don't quantify how exactly.

[Jack Dover]

I use them primarily for flattening the backs of new and old (to be refurbished) tools, and it seems that this process wears them out pretty quickly if you're like me and are often working on tools that are in need of quite a lot of work (old plane irons and the like).

I can wear a plate in a matter of hours. It's easy, just apply all the pressure you can to a narrow spot and electroplating will come off readily. If there's a thing about diamond plates - it's the amount of pressure they will tolerate and how much pressure they do require to work. Quality matters too of course, there are plates on that one website everyone likes to shop on which shed diamonds together with the protective coating.

Stones by the way are way way easier on plates than steel.