review: Double sided diamond bench stone from Axminster.

Started the week with a tool sharping day. All of my abused chisels and planes were treated to some much needed love and attention. Having been flat out with work any sharpening required has tended to be rushed and lacking in time and care. Setting my bench up as a super sharping station I realised that it wasn't just my chisels that needed sorting out, my stones were looking a bit worse for ware. For many years I have been useing water stones for all my sharpening needs, they give great results. However due to a soft nature after time (even when useing a figure of eight pattern) they will loose their flat surface. Luckily this problem can easy be reamided by dressing the surface with a flattening stone. While carrying out this task I decided what I was lacking was a basic stone that could be slipped into the tool box for site work, and would be more robust for general sharpening tasks.

After a bit of research I went for a double sided Diamond stone from www.axminster.co.uk. Diamond particles are fused onto a Nickel plating which is attached to a 8mm thick steel base. The surface has an etched pattern which helps to remove metal particles created when sharpening. The stone has a good surface area of 200mm x 65mm, perfect for wide plane blades. One face is graded medium at 400g (36 micron) and the reverse face is fine at 1,000g (15 micron).Compared to the water stone equivalent, a Diamond stone can feel quite harsh, but their advantage is the surface cannot be hollowed through use. With a Diamond stone you don't have to control your sharpening technique to keep the stone flat, you have the freedom to concentrate on getting the edge you want.The Axmister stone comes with a rubber surround that help to keep it anchored to the bench, and offers some protection when in the toolbox. 

Whatever the production quality of a Diamond stone it will never match up to superior finish achived when useing a water stone. But at a very reasonable £20.00+ vat this stone works well as a sharpening starting point when you need a flat back to a tool quickly, or as a stone to put an edge on a chisel when out on site.