The Bar Keepers friend and a scotch brite work well to keep these Atoma plates clean. Atoma makes great sharpening plates! I use them for nearly all my high vanadium steels.
Thank you for the follow up review, very helpful. Here in the States, the Atoma brand is pretty well available. Even at that A.... place that we won’t mention.
Bunnings sells the smaller Eze Lap diamond plates for ~$75. They are just wide enough for a plane iron (no 5 1/2) but great for quick rehones of chisels.
will have to check these out next time I need to replace my Diamond plates. I am guessing with our current heatwave here in Perth there won't be much action in the shed today🥵🥵🥵
Never heard of them so just did a very quick search online and found that they are available here in UK from Workshop Heaven at current price of £77-00 to £82.50 depending on grade, if that's any help to people wanting to try them. That's with the aluminium mounting blocks. A full set of 4 with cleaning stuff comes in at £305-00. My advice on the last option - open the bottle, pour a big one, down it in one and hit that button...! 😐
Hello, thank you for a good review! I have a question: do you have any comments on how long the stones last in terms of frequency of use? I have been using Atoma 400 on my kitchen knives and leather tools, mainly for initial bevel setting. After several years of low frequency use I am very happy with Atoma 400. However, as I get more involved in leather work, I find that I need to resharpen the skiving knives very often - sometimes several times a day. As my higher grit stones are ceramic and therefore bulky and messy, I'm thinking of buying Atoma 1200 to reduce the frequent honing of the skiving knives to a combination of 1200 grit + ~5-7 microns diamond strop. Thank you in advance!
I'm not sure on the frequency of use, generally diamond stones have a long service life (~10 yrs). Specifically ATOMA I'm not sure about, the loose atoma stones i have had for 3.5 yrs still seem to work nearly as well as when i first purchased them. I have used them fairly heavily for flattening the back or chisel, hand plane blade and just regular sharpening. I have also seen people on forums mention 5yrs and another said 10yrs and they're still using them. I will try reaching out to ATOMA and see if i can get a more precise answer for you. I will message back here if i find out more.
@@lucky_horse i have heard back and it seems there is no set life span for the atoma plates. They will last based on how much they are used, how much heavy work. Apparently like all diamond plates the finer ones wear out faster than the coarser ones, as diamonds get finer the more they are used. But i believe this is assuming they are used at the same rate for the same work. I find in my sharpening that i do the least amount of work on my finest plate as it's just refining the scratch pattern. I have done a lot of heavy reprofiling and flattening the backs of chisels and hand plane blades on my 400 grit and i find no change in its sharpening after 3.5 years. Sorry i couldn't get you a more definitive answer. Personally i think they are up to the challenge and will last at least 5 years, but as mine are not that old i can't say for sure.
Hello Luke, very great video! I have a 0.5 mm chip in my plane iron. It is to much even for my 80 grid paper or my 140 grid scrub wet stone. Is the Atoma 140 able to do such a job? Regards Matthias
Hi Matthias, I'm surprised to hear that 80 grit sandpaper or a 140 Whetstone were unable to remove a 0.5mm chip, as i have removed them with 120 grit paper before. If you have a more modern plane with modern blade steel it is quite a bit harder than traditional blades and that could be the reason. I haven't used the 140 but obviously have other ATOMA stones and like all diamond stones they tend to cut quickly and I'm sure the 140 is no different. It should be able to remove the chip no problem even on a modern blade steel. The nature of removing a 0.5mm chip means you have to remove all the metal off the bevel to remove the chip (obviously) and in the past i have found this to be a time consuming process using bench stones, and understand how frustrating it can get. I see no reason why the sand paper given enough time wouldn't work to remove the chip as it should be able to remove metal from any modern tool steel, however it could require quite a bit of sand paper being regularly replaced to keep the paper coarse. The advantage diamond stones provide is they are harder than all the tool steels, cut faster than sand paper generally and the grit wears much slower, but they're more costly than other sharpening stones. Really at the end of the day if your current method won't work the ATOMA 140 should be able to get the job done, but I'm hesitant to recommend it just for one job due to their cost. But the 140 should also be good for flattening water stones or any other heavy removal jobs like reprofiling a blade. As I don't know exactly what is happening i would try the sandpaper again before buying a diamond stone. The other option is you can hold the blade vertically on the cutting edge and sharpen this way first to remove the chip then reinstate the bevel, however this is quite extreme and i don't think it's any faster but is another option. Hope this helps and if you have anymore questions please ask and I'll try and help if i can.
Thank you so much for this detailed answer! The weird thing is that this iron comes from an over 200 year old Jack plane. A PMDF Hovey Warranted Cast Steel Brand which looks as old as the plane itself. I restored several over 100 year old Stanleys and they seemed all relatively soft. This one gets several thousand strokes on Shapton and quality 3M Paper. Its resistance seems equal to a HSS iron I own. The stones and Paper cut the metal. But it seems that 1000 strokes cut maybe 10 per cent of the metal. Uncommon in relation to my other experiences
@@matthiasvanhoorn362 it could be due to the techniques used to harden and temper the steel. Over 200 years ago I'm sure the results were harder to get accurate and likely done by eye and could have resulted in the steel being harder than expected.
I think the Atoma 140 could be a good investment. I found around a dozen 200 year old planes in the last month. Some of them have maybe 3 different bevels. All of them have very poor back sides. Far away from flat with rust pitting.
Im in WA. Since the shed is uninsulated it doesn't do well in the heat, so i usually have to work when it's cooler. I have painted it white and have a portable A/C in there, but it doesn't help much without insulation. As for storms I've never had any issues thus far.
The Bar Keepers friend and a scotch brite work well to keep these Atoma plates clean.
Atoma makes great sharpening plates! I use them for nearly all my high vanadium steels.
Thanks for the recommendation, yes i agree with you Atoma do make great diamond plates.
I've got the one with the handle for flattening my water stones. Very nice piece of kit!
Indeed, they're a joy to use
Thank you for the follow up review, very helpful. Here in the States, the Atoma brand is pretty well available. Even at that A.... place that we won’t mention.
Good to hear ATOMA is readily available in the States, it's always a bit difficult for me to find out.
Bunnings sells the smaller Eze Lap diamond plates for ~$75. They are just wide enough for a plane iron (no 5 1/2) but great for quick rehones of chisels.
Interesting, i was unaware they sold them, thanks for sharing this.
Great Intro! i'm just right on look for a good flatting diamond stone, and think about buying it in Japan next month.
Thanks for the comment
Thank you for the great review
Glad you liked it
Learnt something new about how Atoma attaches their diamonds to the substrate metal. Thanks Mate!
It was my pleasure, thanks for watching
will have to check these out next time I need to replace my Diamond plates. I am guessing with our current heatwave here in Perth there won't be much action in the shed today🥵🥵🥵
A bit hot in there today for sure
Never heard of them so just did a very quick search online and found that they are available here in UK from Workshop Heaven at current price of £77-00 to £82.50 depending on grade, if that's any help to people wanting to try them. That's with the aluminium mounting blocks. A full set of 4 with cleaning stuff comes in at £305-00. My advice on the last option - open the bottle, pour a big one, down it in one and hit that button...! 😐
Thanks for letting everyone know the prices, much appreciated.
Hello, thank you for a good review!
I have a question: do you have any comments on how long the stones last in terms of frequency of use? I have been using Atoma 400 on my kitchen knives and leather tools, mainly for initial bevel setting. After several years of low frequency use I am very happy with Atoma 400. However, as I get more involved in leather work, I find that I need to resharpen the skiving knives very often - sometimes several times a day. As my higher grit stones are ceramic and therefore bulky and messy, I'm thinking of buying Atoma 1200 to reduce the frequent honing of the skiving knives to a combination of 1200 grit + ~5-7 microns diamond strop.
Thank you in advance!
I'm not sure on the frequency of use, generally diamond stones have a long service life (~10 yrs). Specifically ATOMA I'm not sure about, the loose atoma stones i have had for 3.5 yrs still seem to work nearly as well as when i first purchased them. I have used them fairly heavily for flattening the back or chisel, hand plane blade and just regular sharpening.
I have also seen people on forums mention 5yrs and another said 10yrs and they're still using them.
I will try reaching out to ATOMA and see if i can get a more precise answer for you. I will message back here if i find out more.
Thank you! I would be very, very happy even with 5 years of use.
@@lucky_horse i have heard back and it seems there is no set life span for the atoma plates. They will last based on how much they are used, how much heavy work. Apparently like all diamond plates the finer ones wear out faster than the coarser ones, as diamonds get finer the more they are used. But i believe this is assuming they are used at the same rate for the same work.
I find in my sharpening that i do the least amount of work on my finest plate as it's just refining the scratch pattern. I have done a lot of heavy reprofiling and flattening the backs of chisels and hand plane blades on my 400 grit and i find no change in its sharpening after 3.5 years.
Sorry i couldn't get you a more definitive answer. Personally i think they are up to the challenge and will last at least 5 years, but as mine are not that old i can't say for sure.
Hello Luke, very great video! I have a 0.5 mm chip in my plane iron. It is to much even for my 80 grid paper or my 140 grid scrub wet stone. Is the Atoma 140 able to do such a job? Regards Matthias
Hi Matthias, I'm surprised to hear that 80 grit sandpaper or a 140 Whetstone were unable to remove a 0.5mm chip, as i have removed them with 120 grit paper before.
If you have a more modern plane with modern blade steel it is quite a bit harder than traditional blades and that could be the reason.
I haven't used the 140 but obviously have other ATOMA stones and like all diamond stones they tend to cut quickly and I'm sure the 140 is no different. It should be able to remove the chip no problem even on a modern blade steel.
The nature of removing a 0.5mm chip means you have to remove all the metal off the bevel to remove the chip (obviously) and in the past i have found this to be a time consuming process using bench stones, and understand how frustrating it can get.
I see no reason why the sand paper given enough time wouldn't work to remove the chip as it should be able to remove metal from any modern tool steel, however it could require quite a bit of sand paper being regularly replaced to keep the paper coarse. The advantage diamond stones provide is they are harder than all the tool steels, cut faster than sand paper generally and the grit wears much slower, but they're more costly than other sharpening stones.
Really at the end of the day if your current method won't work the ATOMA 140 should be able to get the job done, but I'm hesitant to recommend it just for one job due to their cost. But the 140 should also be good for flattening water stones or any other heavy removal jobs like reprofiling a blade.
As I don't know exactly what is happening i would try the sandpaper again before buying a diamond stone. The other option is you can hold the blade vertically on the cutting edge and sharpen this way first to remove the chip then reinstate the bevel, however this is quite extreme and i don't think it's any faster but is another option.
Hope this helps and if you have anymore questions please ask and I'll try and help if i can.
Thank you so much for this detailed answer! The weird thing is that this iron comes from an over 200 year old Jack plane. A PMDF Hovey Warranted Cast Steel Brand which looks as old as the plane itself. I restored several over 100 year old Stanleys and they seemed all relatively soft. This one gets several thousand strokes on Shapton and quality 3M Paper. Its resistance seems equal to a HSS iron I own. The stones and Paper cut the metal. But it seems that 1000 strokes cut maybe 10 per cent of the metal. Uncommon in relation to my other experiences
@@matthiasvanhoorn362 it could be due to the techniques used to harden and temper the steel. Over 200 years ago I'm sure the results were harder to get accurate and likely done by eye and could have resulted in the steel being harder than expected.
I think the Atoma 140 could be a good investment. I found around a dozen 200 year old planes in the last month. Some of them have maybe 3 different bevels. All of them have very poor back sides. Far away from flat with rust pitting.
@@matthiasvanhoorn362 if you're going to do a lot of reprofiling bevels then its probably a good option.
Which state are you in? How's your shed go in the summer and through the storms?
Im in WA. Since the shed is uninsulated it doesn't do well in the heat, so i usually have to work when it's cooler. I have painted it white and have a portable A/C in there, but it doesn't help much without insulation. As for storms I've never had any issues thus far.
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