The Atoma Diamond Sharpening Plate #400 is the workhorse of the Atoma diamond plate range - coarse enough for real stock removal, refined enough to leave a surface worth progressing from.
At 40 microns it sits at a practical midpoint in any serious sharpening system, and it earns its place in the workshop in several ways:
- Replacing the scratch pattern left by the #140 quickly and completely
- Restoring lightly damaged edges on chisels and plane irons without dropping back to a coarser plate
- Establishing secondary bevels and adjusting cambers on plane blades
- Flattening waterstones, ceramic stones and oilstones - a job it handles particularly well
That last point is worth noting. The #400 is widely trusted as a flattening plate for Japanese waterstones and other bench stones, where consistent abrasion across the full surface matters. It's a capable, reliable tool that tends to see more use than any other plate in the set.
The critical quality indicator to look for in a diamond sharpening stone is monocrystalline diamonds (each piece of grit is a single solid diamond) they are more expensive to produce but much more durable than polycrystalline diamonds.
The Atoma diamond sharpening plates we have inspected have all been remarkably flat.
Plate size: 210mm x 75 x 11mm (8¼ x 2⅞ x ³/₆₄" )
Do:
Use plenty of fluid and light pressure.
Fading the pressure out gradually as you finish will leave a finer scratch pattern and reduce the amount of strokes you need to take on the next plate.
Use light pressure, the diamonds are cutting tools and if you let them do their job they will serve you well for many years.
Expect all diamond surfaces to have a vicious bite initially and then gradually bed in over the first few uses, this is completely normal. As long as you keep them clean and cool and avoid using too much pressure they will cut like the wind for years.
Use liberal quantities of some kind of fluid on them, water with a few drops of dish soap, window cleaner, water treated with HoneRite Gold all work well.
Light contamination can be cleaned from the surface with an ordinary pencil rubber (eraser), if they get really grubby, moistening the surface with a bit of white spirit will help to lift the crud.
Don't:
Avoid using them with soft metals like brass, wrought iron or aluminium as these will gum up the surface and are impossible to remove.
Avoid using them for the bevels of laminated blades as the backing material is often soft and will gum up the surface.
Avoid using too much pressure, especially on the edges, the diamonds themselves are virtually indestructible, the electroplating that holds them to the surface will last much longer if you don't lean on it and scrub.
Avoid using oily lubricants on them, the greasy residues attract dust which will gum up the surface.