Columbia Gorge Stoneworks Resin Bond Diamond Stones

D Diemaker - I finally got around to it, I bought the CGSW 40, 20, 10 stones yesterday for sharpening my PM Spyderco knives.
I'm not easily finding the right plate for dressing the stones. Can you suggest where to buy one?
I found cambria or granite tile samples from local countertop companies - $25ish, but very thin <1".
Home Depot, which is closer-by, has some tile samples, but again thin and too small.
Then bench-work "granite surface plates" are expensive and probably overkill for this purpose.
Would just plain plexiglass from Amazon work (like EP circles)?
Thanks for the advice - looking to get the stones dressed and start sharpening!
 
Nice catch BearShark44! You using free hand with plates or guided?
Diemaker's "use and maintenance" webpage has SIC grit recommendations by stone microns, and a video link demonstrating what and how he dresses his stone -
 
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Uh just noticed Diemaker pours from ALO marked bottle on first dressing with first 2x8" plate he demo's with, uses same bottle for 3x8" stone. He has reported he also likes Pool filter sand, sand box, side of road sand...
not sure where I got SIC...
 
Hi BearShark44, thank you for your order! I have it pulled and it is waiting to get packed. Due to the size of your order I would be happy to send you a 2cm thick Cambria 12"x12" plate if you would like, just let me know. I still have a bunch of tiles from my defunct business. These are my preferred plates for dressing stones.

For the record, EP sells glass discs for dressing, not polycarb/plexiglass. Either man-made quartz, most granites, glass, or flat porcelain ceramic tiles would work fine for dressing plates. Surface plates are definitely overkill but if found second hand the price may be right.
 
Diemaker said:
Hi BearShark44, thank you for your order! I have it pulled and it is waiting to get packed. Due to the size of your order I would be happy to send you a 2cm thick Cambria 12"x12" plate if you would like, just let me know. I still have a bunch of tiles from my defunct business. These are my preferred plates for dressing stones.

For the record, EP sells glass discs for dressing, not polycarb/plexiglass. Either man-made quartz, most granites, glass, or flat porcelain ceramic tiles would work fine for dressing plates. Surface plates are definitely overkill but if found second hand the price may be right.
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D Diemaker - yes, thank you! That'd be great if you can include the Cambria plate (provided it can ship bubble-wrapped / separate from the precious diamond stones!). Thanks!
 
The plate would ship with the stones on them and no protection for the plate. Instead of a medium flat rate box, we could use a large flat rate box that is 12x12" so the tile will sit tight on the bottom, with your order well padded on top of it. The tile may get some damage on the corners because there isn't room to protect it but your stones would be totally safe.
 
You ought to sell bagged loose diamond abrasive too. With the amount you probably purchase I bet you get a nice price break. I'd buy some.
 
Just ordered a full set of 8x3 stones. Meant to order a while back and then got sidetracked with other priorities. Looking forward to sharpening with these.
 
eKretz said:
You ought to sell bagged loose diamond abrasive too. With the amount you probably purchase I bet you get a nice price break. I'd buy some.
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me too hahaha im sure im last on the list as i make my own stones but man i hate waiting the month from india or china. plus the shipping on half of a full kilo is damn pricey compared to the powder itself only being 4 times the ship price.
 
Sorry to take so long to respond but I am super busy on several fronts right now.

eKretz, I have thought about selling diamond powder but I won't be able to compete on price. Once you get to the kilo price the next break is around 12 kilos and it is only a 5% drop. The stuff is so expensive that you don't get much of a break on larger amounts. What do you want it for? What grits?

David, thank you for your order! It shipped on Tuesday so I hope you have it by now.

311 climber, if memory serves you are paying $70 a kilo? If so that is many times more than what I pay plus I pay a handling charge on top of shipping so I doubt you would want to buy from me. Even when I looked into sourcing direct from China from what looked like a reputable source I would be paying a lot more. I would love to see a Particle Size Distribution chart on what you are getting. By the way, I am not bothered by you making your own stones, that is how I got started about 18 years ago.
 
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Diemaker said:
Sorry to take so long to respond but I am super busy on several fronts right now.

eKretz, I have thought about selling diamond powder but I won't be able to compete on price. Once you get to the kilo price the next break is around 12 kilos and it is only a 5% drop. The stuff is so expensive that you don't get much of a break on larger amounts. What do you want it for? What grits?

David, thank you for your order! It shipped on Tuesday so I hope you have it by now.

311 climber, if memory serves you are paying $70 a kilo? If so that is several times what I pay plus I pay a handling charge on top of shipping so I doubt you would want to buy from me. Even when I looked into sourcing direct from China from what looked like a reputable source I would be paying a lot more. I would love to see a Particle Size Distribution chart on what you are getting. By the way, I am not bothered by you making your own stones, that is how I got started about 18 years ago
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i appreciate that brother. im paying 70$ shipping on a 300 dollar kilo. sorry if i said that wrong. hnhongxiang is the chinese company i have used for the 200ish grit in a RVD grade but im super unfamiliar with the variations. i reaches out just expressing what i was using the powder for and its what was recommended. i should ask for a particle size dist. chart.... so am i crazy or did you say you pay several times less than i do at $70 a kilo? i was kind of confused. if your buying $70 kilos for just the powder minus shipping where do i sign up lol. hell id sign a disclamier not to sell my own line of stones lol. im really looking to get some 50 and possibly 80 and maybe 120ish grits in my personal line. but that would run probably a cool thousand for 3kg.
 
Sorry about that, I obviously didn't write that correctly. What I meant to say, and have edited it to say, is that I pay several times more than $70 a kilo. $300 a kilo is still much, much better than what I pay. The coarsest I have tried is 80 grit or 160 micron powder. These grains are .006" in diameter and I don't feel any larger would help unless I used a much harder resin, but then at this point a belt sander starts looking real good. As a rule of thumb each step in grit size should be 50%, which you need to measure in microns to do. You can do larger steps but I definitely would not do smaller ones. To save on diamond I would mold in layers, diamond and resin on the bottom and resin on top as the backer if you keep making them the way you have.
 
Diemaker said:
Sorry about that, I obviously didn't write that correctly. What I meant to say, and have edited it to say, is that I pay several times more than $70 a kilo. $300 a kilo is still much, much better than what I pay. The coarsest I have tried is 80 grit or 160 micron powder. These grains are .006" in diameter and I don't feel any larger would help unless I used a much harder resin, but then at this point a belt sander starts looking real good. As a rule of thumb each step in grit size should be 50%, which you need to measure in microns to do. You can do larger steps but I definitely would not do smaller ones. To save on diamond I would mold in layers, diamond and resin on the bottom and resin on top as the backer if you keep making them the way you have.
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i appreciate your knowledge and that does make sense a good way to keep a thicker stone with just the grinding medium on one side. also yeah grit size, my brain was firing on the i have those 36 grit belts for my sander and the grain while absolutely huge lol seemed like it would only cut at a half rate once submerged in epoxy. my 180-230 grit once embedded in pure epoxy seems to cut more at a 400 grit scratch pattern since it has the epoxy between each individual grain keeping the grit from being fully exposed. for example those 200 grit stones i make feel alot smoother than the same grit sandpaper as the grain on the paper seems to only have the bond towards the very bottom of the grain and not wrapping up to the very head of the grain. do you feel thats an accurate statement? love the convo. i carry damn resin stones in my pocket everyday and my pack i carry, etc. im one of those dudes lol
 
Yes, sandpaper or plated diamond stones are at the opposite spectrum of resin bond for aggressiveness since the abrasive is so much more exposed. If properly used proper grade good quality diamonds wear very slowly so you shouldn't need to refresh them very often. If you use a resin that doesn't really wear, as long as you keep the swarf washed away, then the stone shouldn't wear more than .001" for say 1000 knives, other than your first grit which does all the work. This is the idea with having say 1/16" thick stones on a thicker backer for stability. It does the job needed and keeps the price down when using the higher priced diamond.
 
Diemaker said:
Yes, sandpaper or plated diamond stones are at the opposite spectrum of resin bond for aggressiveness since the abrasive is so much more exposed. If properly used proper grade good quality diamonds wear very slowly so you shouldn't need to refresh them very often. If you use a resin that doesn't really wear, as long as you keep the swarf washed away, then the stone shouldn't wear more than .001" for say 1000 knives, other than your first grit which does all the work. This is the idea with having say 1/16" thick stones on a thicker backer for stability. It does the job needed and keeps the price down when using the higher priced diamond.
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yeah the ones ive made are not shedding at all and keep cutting and cutting. ive put even ones ive made on the scale after the last 6 months of use with a close to $2k scale from our paint system at work and they havent lost weight even to the .00 hundredth of a gram. its wild to me. the ones i use daily just cut. i havent need to flatten any at this point since the first production of them. not to say i couldnt have better material. yeah and thats why id want to try the larger grit size since its barely exposed.... im looking to hog off steel without a sander. shit takes too long using even the coarsest stones i have....i think the kme bench stones being i think coarse grain aluminum oxide fused cut better than stuff like the 120 shapton etc. but its still slow if you are trying to remove the wild chips people put into knives. plus to cut fast im adding unneeded pressure onto the stone. ive never been excited to sit and cut with a 120 shapton for 25 minutes just to get good bevels back. and even less enthused to get a lower degree angle with more materal to hog off and it takes forever longer like on deep scandi grinds. ive put some 60 grit sic in epoxy and that as well is way smoother than 60 grit. unfortunately it doesnt cut like diamond. most of the ones im making are 1/4 to 1 inch thick of the cutting medium on no backer since they are so solid already.
 
311climber said:
Diemaker said:
Yes, sandpaper or plated diamond stones are at the opposite spectrum of resin bond for aggressiveness since the abrasive is so much more exposed. If properly used proper grade good quality diamonds wear very slowly so you shouldn't need to refresh them very often. If you use a resin that doesn't really wear, as long as you keep the swarf washed away, then the stone shouldn't wear more than .001" for say 1000 knives, other than your first grit which does all the work. This is the idea with having say 1/16" thick stones on a thicker backer for stability. It does the job needed and keeps the price down when using the higher priced diamond.
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oh and my bad mine do shed. i didnt mean at all but they are not shedding fast at all. i have on occasion seen the old small diamond specs under sunlight.
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I tried emailing the company a few days ago asking about this but haven't received a reply yet so thought I'd ask here.

Do they not offer 1"x6" stones to work with the Edge Pro or are they just out of stock? I read where the OP/manufacturer uses 1x6 with a guided system so figured this would be an option?

I've been wanting to get a full set of diamond plates for the EP for a while and when I saw this thread I went straight to the website to place an order but didn't find the 1x6. Even 4" of diamond on 6" plate would be OK (I think) though I'd prefer the full 6" so don't have to worry much about pulling the plate past the knife edge. Or are people finding another way to use 1x4" on an Edge Pro?

Is anyone using these with an EP and having success?
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
I tried emailing the company a few days ago asking about this but haven't received a reply yet so thought I'd ask here.

Do they not offer 1"x6" stones to work with the Edge Pro or are they just out of stock? I read where the OP/manufacturer uses 1x6 with a guided system so figured this would be an option?

I've been wanting to get a full set of diamond plates for the EP for a while and when I saw this thread I went straight to the website to place an order but didn't find the 1x6. Even 4" of diamond on 6" plate would be OK (I think) though I'd prefer the full 6" so don't have to worry much about pulling the plate past the knife edge. Or are people finding another way to use 1x4" on an Edge Pro?

Is anyone using these with an EP and having success?
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EP has been my customer for 28 years now so I can't compete with them, hence I don't sell any guided sharpening items on my website, only to EP. I would be disappointed trying to use a 4" stone on a guided sharpener, especially if it could use a 6" stone. You have almost double the working length with a 6" stone IMO.
 
Diemaker said:
Sorry to take so long to respond but I am super busy on several fronts right now.

eKretz, I have thought about selling diamond powder but I won't be able to compete on price. Once you get to the kilo price the next break is around 12 kilos and it is only a 5% drop. The stuff is so expensive that you don't get much of a break on larger amounts. What do you want it for? What grits?
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Actually I was thinking of trying to strip and replate my own electroplated wheels for a drill grinder I use for resharpening and splitting points on dull drills. Might be cheaper to just get the wheels stripped and replated at a place that does it regularly by the sound of it. They generally charge about $135-$150 for a ~6" wheel with grit on the OD and face.
 
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