Using EZELAP sharpeners

i bought a few months back a couple of the small 4 inch EZELAP diamond sharpeners the ones that come fixed to a wooden block. I have looked online as to whether I should use oil or water or nothing but as yet cannot find anything though one clip had a can of sewing machine oil beside the sharpener.

So anyone know if it is a good thing to use a liquid and if so any recommendations. my main use will be to sharpen small 1/4 inch cutters for the lathe and mill.

Chris

Ive used these for many years. I've found the best thing to use is water with a tiny amount on household handwash to break the surface tension. Wash the sharpener under the tap after each use.

Russell

Window cleaner also works well as a cutting fluid on diamond plates. Not the chalky mauve stuff!

Honing yes, sharpening 1/4" HSS no, not really.

I find most of these hand held diamond sharpener thingies great for sharpening a knife in the kitchen, but certainly no better than a good honing stone in the workshop.

I use Trend honing fluid on my (expensive) DMT diamond for fear of rust damaging the stone.

I have a couple of the red handled 'fine' Eze-Lap tools...one I have had for over 30 years and it's been involved in just about everything I have made in that time...it's in my clock box now. over the years it's become even finer in texture. I don't normally use any media I just use it to fine hone cutters and pivots in the lathe etc. Periodically I 'wash' it in WD40 to remove the surface debris.

Thanks guys as always different opinions and experiences.

Anyone care to define honing as when I look it up it says bending back the old edge as opposed to removing material to create a new one in sharpening. The diamond disks are abrasive so seems a tad confusing.

Chris.

Right,...when you grind/sharpen a fine cutting edge like an open razor the very thin edge gets distorted one way due to the physical act of sharpening.....honing is a method of removing this deformation and lightly restoring the new cutting edge....

.........In praxtice there are often ways of avoiding this.

sounds like what you do to a cabinet scraper with a burnisher - the scraper having previously been filed/ground and honed.

Handwash probably costs more than the diamonds...

Honing is finishing by removing very tiny amounts of material. Honing a cuthroat razor on a leather strop works by 'straightening the edge' but you can't hone the bore of a cylinder like that!

Neil

I use water, and wash the hone and the work after use.

Honing a freshly ground tool will, if done properly, bring it to optimum condition, and polish it..

Often judicious honing of a tool in use, can avoid a complete regrind.

Although intended for fine tuning rather than full scale sharpening, Diamond hones will remove metal quite rapidly,

Howard

The act of sharpening raises a burr depending on how you sharpen also depends on the size of the burr. By burnishing increases the burr as stated above like on a cabinet scraper. With other items that need sharpening using a leather strop will remove that burr but still leave the edge sharp. For example a woodcarvers chisel may not be put near a stone of any discription for quite some time but will be stroped numerous times and still keep a very keen edge.

However metal turning tools will need to be touched up on a stone or diamond card to keep it's cutting edge

Quote:

Honing is finishing by removing very tiny amounts of material. Honing a cuthroat razor on a leather strop works by 'straightening the edge' but you can't hone the bore of a cylinder like that!

Neil

No you can't - but you can 'cork' a cylinder bore as a final action to remove 'spalled' material. I was always led to believe that honing is actually a surface finishing rather than a true machining operation, in that you cannot hone to a form - it will always follow the form of the previous fine boring operation.

A point about cleaning diamond hones is to use a school eraser, the rubber will remove the 'cr&p' out of the hone quite nicely.

Edited By Oily Rag on 23/03/2020 12:09:55