This is a $15 set of diamond plates. I wasn't expecting it to compete with my better sharpening tools. What I wanted these to do is cut the bulk of material from my abused bench chisels or other flat bevel tools so I'm not wearing out my better / more expensive stones and diamond plates. They do this very well. They're made from sheet metal. They need to be supported if you plan to use pressure against them. Laying them on a table or wood block works very well. The sheet metal was cut using a (dull) sheer that leaves a rough burr on one side higher than the surface of the plate and can gum up your tools if you hit it. File / grind off the burr and the problem is gone. Read more

Came in in great condition Read more

I have used these a few times now. They seem to work better after a bit. A non skid backing would make them better. Read more

I am a hobby woodworker who frequently needs to sharpen chisels and bench plane irons, and this set works very reliably for those purposes. Considering the price and what diamond plates actually do, these are a very reasonable choice for many hobbyists who don't want to spend hundreds on high end equipment to get their tools sharp. I set these up on the Rex Krueger style sharpening rig - a flat piece of melamine - and glued them on with rubber cement. This is a key point in using plates like this, where flatness is key. Instead of relying on a thick steel plate which is trued and then has diamonds adhered, these plates are thin aluminum and the flatness is a product of the substrate you attach them to. That's a fine trade-off for me, as a piece of melamine is cheap and very flat. Some of the other reviewers said that the diamonds wore off of these really quickly and they stopped cutting. That is possible, and maybe they received a faulty product. However, that's a common misunderstanding when breaking in diamond plates - they will cut really aggressively when new until the loose diamonds on the surface wear off. This give the impression that the cutting efficiency has dropped off dramaticall, but what you're left with is the well-adhered diamonds which should stay on the plate and will continue to cut steel for quite a while. I can sharpen chisels and irons to a fairly high sharpness, pull the burr off with a strop (attached to the same sharpening rig) and slice paper from the side with the resulting edge. That's sharp enough for woodworking tasks! I can't speak to the longevity of this set as I've only been using it for a few months, but even a year of life out of a product at this price is admirable, and I expect these will last longer than that. Recommended! Read more

Tried these on the basis of Paul Sellers' recommendations about similar plates for new hand tool woodworkers who can't justify the high cost of "brand name" sharpening plates. I haven't been disappointed so far. Naturally, they are thinner plates but as long as they are affixed to something flat and solid e.g. a flat floor tile or thick plywood, they are good. I will be interested to see how long the surfaces last but, based on Mr Seller's comments, he expected them to last a long time for him and I won't be using them anywhere near as much as he does. Read more