Trend Diamond Sharpening Stone Kit, 8 x 3 Inch Double Sided (300/1000 Grit) Bench Stone with Pouch, Cleaning Block & Non-Slip Mat, DWS/CP8/FC

This sharpening stone works great! Being 8"x3" it is the perfect size for sharpening plane blades and chisels. I achieved very sharp edges on my chisels and plane blades and was able to flatten the backs of my blades. I like that it has two sides so I only have one stone to deal with instead of two. I also like that it is monocrystalline instead of polycrystalline; monocrystaline sharpens more efficiently and lasts longer. One side is 300 grit and the other side is 1000 grit. These are marked clearly on each side. Only the 300 grit side has the clearance channels. At the time of this review, the photo advertised here in Amazon is not correct since it shows clearance channels on a 1000 grit stone. These channels are very effective for keeping the lapping fluid evenly distributed on the surface and also clear out some of the metal shavings. The 1000 grit side does not have these channels. I wish it did since it really helps a lot. I find the channels on this Trend stone to be much better than the holes used on DMT stones. While a knife point can still occasionally hang up in these channels, the point will have more tendency to skip over it rather than catching hard like on the edges of the holes on a DMT stone. I sharpened two pocket knives on this stone and only had the knife point hang up once. The channels on the Trend stone also take up less space on the stone, thereby allowing for more diamond cutting surface, unlike the DMT stones where the many big holes leave very little cutting surface left. DMT does have steel plate stones very similar to these Trend stones, but DMT currently does not offer any clearance holes or channels on them. I only used a general purpose household cleaner in a spray bottle as the lubrication. The soapy solution works well as a lubricant and is easy to clean up; it is also very cost effective. Don't' use bathroom cleaners since those can be corrosive if left on metal for too long. Once broken in, my knife and blade edges came out very smooth and sharp. I posted a photo of one of the bad chisels I flattened with this stone. Diamond sharpening stones do require a break in period. The courser the stone, the less time it takes to break in (because there are fewer diamonds to break in on a course stone). When first pulled out of the package, this Trend stone is very rough. I grabbed one of my low quality chisels and started working on it to improve the chisel and break in the stone. The 300 grit side broke-in within about 30 minutes of working this one chisel (the chisel was in really bad shape and would have sharpened quicker if I used an extra course stone). The 1000 grit took about 2.5 to 3 hours of sharpening time with a few different chisels and knives before it broke in. Some people expect the stone to be broke-in right out of the box; however, with a stone that will last for several years, I don't have a problem spending a few hours breaking it in. The pouch it comes with is well made and very handy to have. It also comes with what they call a cleaning block. This item seems to be nothing more than a big pencil eraser. But it is nice they included it. It also comes with a non-slip pad: this is also something you can buy in a home store that is used as liners in drawer bottoms, but again it is very nice they included it. Overall, I am very pleased with the performance of this stone. I highly recommend that if you are looking to get a diamond stone, this one will not disappoint as it is high quality and sharpens wonderfully - far better than sand stones. Updated information: I have also used the DMT diamond stones. I find the trend stones to be far more quality made than DMT. The Trend stone has a more uniform coating of diamonds and the metal block has squared edges instead of slightly rounded edges. The Trend also does not seem to clog as easily as the DMT. The DMT stones also seem to lose diamonds much easier than the Trend. I also believe the Trend is a flatter stone after I attempted to flatten a few plane blades. Therefore, as a side by side comparison, I put Trend stones well above the DMT stones.

This is a good plate. If you have no others at all, start here and you'll get the most bang for your buck. The performance is very good. I have DMT, Trend, and Atoma plates, more than10 between the brands and the grits. The trend plate cuts the fastest, hands down. As somebody that has different types, I'll go so far as briefly explaining the differences that I see between them all. They are also advertised as having the most flatness of any of my diamond plates. Would I buy it again, yes. Having all of the different plates and if I could do it over again, I'd buy two different trend plates and then just move onward to my Shapton water stones. It would have saved a lot of money and I'd have still been happy with the results. I always follow water stones anyway. Be absolutely sure to use a rubber plate/stone holder to keep it in place and prevent the under-side from getting marred if you buy a double-sided plate. The gee-whiz comparison: The Trend is the fastest cutting plate that I have. It also has a consistent in the scratch pattern for the 300 grit side. Because it's double-sided, I didn't need to purchase two separate plates, less weight. The rest of my diamond plates are single surface and let me tell you, the entire collection is heavy. When using lubricating fluid, they work well. I don't have to apply fluid as much as I do with Atomas. Metal waste clears easily. These feel solid like DMT and overall best value. Could buy two different plates and get four grits. Best value. The DMT is a nice piece of steel, but the diamonds seem to fracture much more frequently and leave rogue scratches that are harder to work out. The DMT seem a tiny bit more susceptible to rust with a very faint reddish hue, even after using rust inhibitor in the lubricating fluid (hone right) and taking care to dry them with lint-free cloth as much as possible. When using lubricating fluid, The DMTs require the least amount of fluid and the metal waste clears easily. These feel the most dense and rugged of all. The Atomas are my favorite when I want a beautiful polished surface. With just a tiny bit more pressure, I can get mirrored finishes and the most uniformed scratch pattern of all. The plate is aluminum and the diamond plate substrate is steel, adhered to the aluminum plate. Atomas cut smoother and even though they are rated at 400, 600, 800, 1200, they actually feel like 600, 1000, 1500, 2000. I have to use lots of fluid continually as the metal slurry builds or the plate will dry and the tool will slightly stick. The steel substrate will gouge and scratch if you are abusive (I tested on one). The aluminum corners and base will ding and slightly bend if you drop it hard enough (tested too). These are lightest of all. If the steel is beat-up, I go to the DMT plates. If the steel is clean, I go straight to the Trend first because it's the fastest. If I need just the most gengle of touch-up work, I use Atoma. If I am putting a very good cutting edge, I then step through the shapton water stones up to 16000--depending on the tool--and will even finish on a stop that's equivalent to about 30,000 grit.

Regarding diamond stones and "rust": The nickel coating is rust-proof. Synthetic diamonds don't rust. The problem with rust is the steel particles that come off your blades when sharpening. They lodge in the stone and will rust if left there. You can clean the stone with water and Trend Tool Cleaner and a fine brass brush. Then spray the stone with a light coating of Trend Tool Cleaner(leave it on) and it will prevent rust. You DO NOT need to buy Trend's expensive lapping fluid. The Tool Cleaner has a rust inhibitor that does the same job. The Tool Cleaner does a great job of both cleaning and inhibiting rust. It is far cheaper than the lapping fluid. The lapping fluid is very high quality, BUT it is not necessary. Any decent honing fluid will work as long as you keep enough of it on the stone to float away the debris. The Tool Cleaner is probably not a good substitute for honing fluid.

This is the first diamond plate I've ever owned. I went for this solid steel plate over others with composite construction just because it felt like it would be a better investment. My sharpening needs range from woodworking tools to kitchen knives. The plate works well for both. The coarse side of the plate (300 grit) is good for taking a pretty dull implement back to a well shaped edge. But, if you have serious reshaping to do, you will want something more aggressive (e.g., flattening the backs of new chisels, working notches out of abused kitchen knives). The fine side (1000 grit) is fine enough for my purposes. When sharpening chisels, I follow up with a leather strop and green compound. For kitchen knives, I follow up with a honing steel. I definitely like the fact that using this diamond plate means I won't have to fool around keeping a set of sharpening stones flat.

Coarse side sharpens fast. Fine side takes a while to raise a burr. Leaves a good polish on a plane blade.

If you're like me, and you're trying to follow what the pros are doing, AKA Rob Cosman, then you're in the wrong place, I too bought this stone because it was highly recommended by RC as " AN essential sharpening set up for plane irons and chisels" I should also note that I am in NO WAY associated with Rob Cosman tools or Rob Cosman himself (wish I was though, he is brilliant) He didn't ask me to say any of this and probably never would, I'm simply trying to help the next man. This stone is garbage, as far as i can tell so far. Rob Cosman is not using this anymore. And for good reason. I was super excited to get this stone, it arrived when they said it would, But because I haven't been as efficient as some others with hand sharpening , I decided to use my Veritas MKII sharpening jig(not bought here for good reasons) to get an idea of what angle the blade should be held in hopes I can get there with hand sharpening, and my blade looked funny after a few strokes on the 1000 grit side of it, Almost like it was being cambered, I thought to myself "huh, maybe I have really done some damage to my blade, but upon further inspection of the stone, using feeler gages, the 1000 grit side of it has a .0025 + dish in it width wise, in 3 inches its out that much. The length seemed to be ok. .0025 , doesn't seem like much you say? Well first off, if you're looking to have any sort of quality to sharpening your blades, which requires flatness, predictability and consistency to get that good edge, .0025 for standard tolerances is irresponsible, dare I say even careless when it comes to quality control. I normally use DMT (aka Dia Sharp from woodcraft) which boasts a tolerance for flatness of +/- .0005. Thats half a thousandth of an inch, which is the type of consistency and predictability any stone at this price point should aim for, nay, should be expected to compare to. So, I am returning the stone, for a replacement, which will arrive today so I can give an Un bias opinion to, after all people make mistakes, sometimes of Friday afternoons I am rushing as well but....no excuse for poor craftmanship. I will update it when I have inspected it. From what I understand from the Pros of woodworking, there should be a minimum of .0015 tolerance, meaning if it is off by one and a half thousandths of an inch, it should be okay. If this next stone is off by .0015, I will be returning that as well. IMO that's ridiculous, I don't want thou and a half of camber to my blade, you shouldn't unless it's a scrub plane. For the price of the stone, I could just buy another Sharpton 1000 grit ceramic stone and continue to use my DMT "fine" coarse which is 500 grits for flattening my Shapton stones and putting my micro bevel on my blades, which are well within the tolerances I said up top. within half a thousandth of an inch. THE ONLY REASON I gave this a 5 star rating, was in hopes of helping the next man or woman who wants a quality product, and if you read the other low star ratings you will see this is a consistent error, most people just didn't inspect in time, now they are left feeling sick about the money they wasted on the garbage. There seems to be a very strong indication that TREND'S tolerance inspection has broken down. You don't have to settle for anything other than greatness when spending your money, so don't be afraid to be a snob at this price point. If the other stone is bad, i will add an image to prove it.

Oh yes! I bought this and the Trend DWS/LF/100 3.4 FL OZ lapping fluid. This is really what you want. I also have the DVD of James ___ demonstrating this stone. (He is the distributor of this in the US.) Light pressure works better. My first project was to tune a cheapy Buck block plane. I had mostly done that already on wet/dry on glass. But I thought I would touch it up. It definitely improved it. Then on to the blade. I had sharpened it once on wet/dry but then hit a hidden finish nail with it. Not once, but over and over before I realized it was not a knot. Poo. (Pooh?) So thanks to the nail, I had a LOT to take off. I have a honing guide (spent a pretty penny for it, too) but chose instead to free-hand it. It turns out to be quite easy once you get a feel for it. So an hour later on 300, and about 5 minutes on 1000, and that booger was SHARP. I wound up using it a few days later on a door I was restoring, and it cut like butter. Wow!!! The next evening I tackled an Irwin Marple 2" chisel I bought on Amazon. It took A TON of work to true the back and the bevel. More on that when I review the chisel. But again, an hour+ (listening to FWW shoptalk live podcasts) on the 300 on the back, and 30 minutes on the bevel, and I cut myself wiping it a bit carelessly. But it was not yet sharp, so I then spent a few minutes each on the 1000. It was razor sharp! Wow! It cut paper like the DVDs show. I will never go back to wet/dry now for sharpening. I will still use it for major truing at the coarser grits. But not any of the sharpening.

This 'precision' stone is off at least 20 thou over the length, and uneven over the width. The fine side is hollow and the coarse is bellied. Garbage QC from Trend; this should have never left the factory. No need for fancy analysis, just hold a straight edge up to it. One pic is the gaping hollow on the trend stone, and another the excellent performance of the 'budget' Ultra Sharp competitor. Less money, better product .. this isn't hard. They sell a combo stone that's consistently 30-50% less than what Trend sells. And watch Amazon prices; you can get the trend anywhere from $80 to $120 depending on when you buy. Another picture is the damage the trend stone did to my 16k Shapton. Put a great big hollow on it from the coarse side. Final pic is the blade on my #5 showing the wobbly grind the trend put on it. Before use, this blade was flat flat flat. I was getting excellent performance from an older DMT combo stone and that 16k Shapton. All that wavy grind mark is 100% due to the Trend. Even if it wasn't shaped like a potato chip the long way, that unevenness across the width would kill it for me just the same. I don't like to give 1 star reviews, but this one earned it. Seems to cut nice and fast. Like many diamond stones, the fine side has some 'erratics' that cut more and leave scratches. They wear down over time and clean up easy enough with a proper water stone, so I don't think that's a big deal.

Perfecto para el primer afilado de cuchillas de cepillo o formones. Luego es necesario usar una piedra 6-8mil pero se gana mucho tiempo. Recomiendo usarlo con el líquido de la marca Trend específico para estas piedras de diamante

Affilatura rapida ed efficace. La grana è 300/1000 quindi non aspettatevi una cosa professionale ma per hobbisti va più che bene. L’affilatura risulta buona specialmente per legno dolce.

Muy buen producto ,se puede afilar rápidamente sin complicación

Teuer, aber gute Qualität

This was very good value for money. I bought it primarily for flattening oil and whetstones rather than directly for chisel, plane irons etc. This means that I can go to a much finer grit than the 300/1000 if I want to. The size 3 x 8 is ideal for this. However, when I did have a go at an old 2 1/4" plane iron it worked beautifully. I would recommend getting the Trend lapping fluid too - makes a real difference in the time spent and does not rust the plate.