Thread: Diamond plate - wet or dry?

Dishwashing liquid in water works quite well. Otherwise,mineral spirits.JET

I've always used water until trying WD-40 a couple of days ago. It works very well, and I finally found a use for WD-40!

Although I am no expert on diamond stones, I would think you require some sort of lubrication in order to carry away the metal particles. This is how other sharpening plates work - water on waterstones, oil on oil stones, and probably even grinding wheels which require dressing to clean and flatten the surface. I would think water, WD-40, machine oil, or some other lubricant would work fine.

No doubt you could use them 'dry' for small jobs, but I suspect you'd have to clean the surface of the diamond stone soon anyway to get rid of the junk left by whatever you're sharpening.

Cheers,
Mark

I have the same plate and I just use a brush. I keep it beside the plate and when I can see a build up I give it a quick brush, check my progress and keep going. Being double sided I wouldn't want to use a lubricant as it would be messy when you flip it. I occasionally wash the plate with soap and water just to give it a good clean.

The only real reason to use lubricant on a diamond plate is if you aren't careful and generate a lot of particles and keep going over them and generate a lot of heat they will fuse onto the diamond plate. I have only had this problem when working router bits as I tend to just use one small portion of the plate. With normal sharpening I work a large section of the plate so don't have any problem.

I have been able to remove this hard residue with soap water and a nylon brush.

Here is some info from DMT faq on their diamond plates:

http://www.dmtsharp.com/dmtdiff/faqsfeedback.php#Dry

http://www.dmtsharp.com/dmtdiff/faqsfeedback.php#Care