EZE-LAP Diamond Sharpening Hones – Review, Part 2

It’s been a while since I wrote ‘Part 1’ to this review of EZE-LAP Diamond hones, at the end of May 2012. In the meantime (about six weeks),  I’ve been using them in the workshop on a regular basis. I won’t say it’s every day that I use them, but certainly 3 or 4 times a week, every week, when I’m working with tools that need to be sharpened.

So what are the EZE-LAP hones?

Their full ‘official’ name is EZE-LAP Diamond Hone and Stone. The manufacturer in the USA describes them as…

Very effective in hard to get places, carbide table saw blades, router bits, deburring. many uses include hunting and fishing knives, axes, woodworking tools and carbides.

Each of the hones consists of a strong piece of plastic, rectangular in shape, approximately 3/4″ wide, 6″ long and 1/8″ thick. At the business end the plastic tapers in thickness and one side has a 2″ x 3/4″ diamond coated stainless alloy ‘pad’ (so described by the manufacturer), which is the actual sharpening or honing surface. At the other end is a handy hole, so if you want to hang them up or attach a lanyard then that is quite useful. Each of the hones is colour-coded, and the handle has the brand name as well as a legend identifying what the coarseness is.

The three I purchased are;

• Coarse (LC), an equivalent of 250 grit sandpaper
• Fine (LF), an equivalent of 600 grit
• Super Fine (LSF), an equivalent of 1200 grit

There are  two others in the range; Medium (the equivalent of 400 grit sandpaper), and an Extra Coarse (150 grit equivalent)

Method

Obviously different tools need various sharpening methods, but most of my work involves a lathe, so I will reserve my comments to the tools I use in my turning. I will have to assume the reader is familiar with the tools for a lathe, as I don’t have time to explain them here.  I mostly use gouges and scrapers as well as a couple of hollowing tool systems, so I’ll outline those.

The scrapers are much easier to sharpen than the gouges. Firstly I use the course honer to pull one-way around the edge of the cutting surface, to ’round-out’ the edge and make it smooth. This effectively blunts the tool more than it is already. I then pull the hone across the edge from bottom to top with quite a bit of pressure to create an upstanding burr. This is what does the cutting on a scraper. Sometimes I use the ‘fine’ hone to create the burr, or refine it, as this gives a finer cutting edge for a more delicate touch. I usually use this method before doing a finishing cut.

On gouges, such as a roughing gouge or bowl gouge I mainly only use the coarse hone. I don’t ‘blunt’ the edge, but simply use the second method to sharpen ‘across’ the edge in an ‘upward’ movement roughly following the existing angle used to create the bevel. I constantly feel the edge with my thumb to feel for that ‘very sharp’ fine edge. A spindle gouge is sharpened in a similar way but usually gets the fine honing sharpener as well to create a much finer finish.

I have also used both the coarse and fine hones on my Nikos Sirgas scrapers ( these are heavy-duty scrapers for deep hollowing tools), that I fit to my Crown Revolution and Hamlet Big Brother systems. The hones are very useful for this, as it’s not usually possible to sharpen these blades whilst still attached to the tool. The normal (and rather laborious) method of sharpening the scrapers means disassembling the tool, attaching the scraper to a dedicated sharpening handle, sharpening it on a large sharpening wheel, then removing it from the handle and reassembling the hollowing tool. So as you can imaging having a sharpening method to give an edge to the scraper whilst it’s still on the tool is a real time-saving bonus.

Application

I’ve used the diamond honers during the making a few bowls and a segmented candlestick in particular. Using them has certainly saved me some time, as I don’t have to break from being ‘in the zone’ to go and start sharpening tools by the more conventional means; it’s very easy to have the sticks in a pocket and just give a couple of quick swipes to the edge of the tool.

I would say that the Black-handled ‘LC’ one (Coarse), has definitely had the most use. This is the one I usually pick up to give a quick sharpen to my lathe tools, often not bothering with the other two. I have used the red ‘Fine’ one too on occasion, but have not really used the blue ‘SuperFine’ one at all, apart from trying it out once when I first took them into the workshop. Usually the black on its own, or the black followed by a few strokes from the red is more than enough to revitalize the edge on my gouge, hollowing tool or scraper and lets me continue to hollow or cut unhindered. I don’t really do any ‘extra fine’ cutting, with tools like a chisel or a plane very often, and I assume the blue ‘Super Fine’ would probably come into it’s own and be utilized then.

Conclusion: Do I think they’re any good? Would I recommend them? Were they a good buy?

Yes, I find them very useful to quickly regain an edge burr on a scraper, bowl gouge, hollowing tool or spindle gouge. I would certainly recommend them for anyone doing turning, because they save lots of time, and it means you don’t have to leave the lathe to go sharpen a tool and perhaps lose the focus you have on the piece you’re working on.

I can only assume that they’re good for router bits chisels etc. as I have not had recourse to use any of these for the last couple of months.

I’m very glad I have them and therefore to me they were definitely a good buy and worth what I paid for them. However I’m left feeling as if I wish I had bought a Medium and Extra Coarse rather than the Super Fine hone.

The EZE-LAP Diamond Sharpening Hones that I purchased and tested here are;

• Sp Fine Grit 1200 (LSF), which cost £6.49
• Fine Grit 600 (LF), which cost £6.05
• Coarse Grit 250 (LC),  which cost £9.95

Prices correct at time of publication.

These are available on eBay with free p&p, or directly in the UK from:

Leeside Tool Shop.
Burndell Road,
Yapton,
Arundel,
West Sussex
BN18 0HP
01243 554056‎
http://www.leesidetools.co.uk

Please tell them who sent you…

Cheers, Steve