The Dovetail Kid

There seems to be some confusion regarding diamond stones, one of the reasons being the fact that the system used to grade them is different to the one used for Japanese waterstones and many of the natural stones like the well known Arkansas stones.

Diamond stones from DMT, probably the best and most popular around, have the following grits:

• Extra coarse ~ 220 grit
• Coarse ~325 grit
• Fine ~600 grit
• Extra fine ~1200 grit

As you can see from the above list, diamond stones will be most useful as a first step in the sharpening process, followed by the higher grits provided by waterstones and oilstones.

Because diamond stones cut extremely fast and their surfaces remain perfectly flat they’re well suited for flattening the back of plane irons and chisels and establish the bevel. This is what I use my extra coarse stone before moving to a 1000 grit whaterstone for the sharpening and 8000 grit stone for the honing of the cutting edges.

I must say that so far these three stones have served me well and with this small sharpening kit I’ve kept my plane blades and chisels sharp for a very long time.