How fine exactly is the "Super Fine" EZE-Lap diamond stone?

[Sam Cui]

Hi!
I've been lurking here for quite a while but as you can see this is my first post. It's actually a question I asked on another, British forum but I thought I'd get more responses if I posted here, where the EZE-Lap plates are much more popular.
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I recently purchased a Super Fine EZE-Lap to replace a generic brand, double sided plate I’d been using. Now I’m aware that diamond stones do start out rough and progressively reveal their true grit size, but it’s been almost two weeks of heavy use and the scratch pattern it leaves is still about as rough as my well-worn (2 year-old) Coarse plate, which is also EZE-Lap.
I remember the initial roughness on both the Coarse EZE-Lap and the cheapo wore off within couple days of use. So is it common for the Super Fine EZE-Lap to retain its roughness this long?

Here's a couple pictures of the scratch pattern.
photo 1.jpg
photo 2.jpg
If it is not too much trouble, could someone who owns the same plate (or a similar one) upload a picture to compare?


Thanks in advance,

Sam

[glenn bradley]

I just grabbed my glue removal beater 1" Olympia chisel so it isn't real flat but, you can see the progressive scratch pattern These are DMT Dia-Sharp in Coarse:

dia-sharp (1).jpg

Fine:

dia-sharp (2).jpg

Extra Fine:

dia-sharp (3).jpg

and Extra-extra Fine:

dia-sharp (4).jpg

• BLUE (C) Diamond - Coarse
  
  Quickly sharpen a neglected edge (325 mesh, 45 micron)
• RED (F) Diamond - Fine
  
  Put a keen edge on a maintained tool (600 mesh, 25 micron)
• GREEN (E) Diamond - Extra Fine
  
  Sharpen to a razor edge (1200 mesh, 9 micron)
• TAN (EE) Diamond - Extra-Extra Fine
  
  Extra fine polish to an extreme edge (8000 mesh, 3 micron)

[Judson Green]

Soon someone will be along to more helpful, but here's my experience with em.

I've been using the coarse fine and super fine eze laps for nearly a year now and yes it does take the stones a while to settle in. How long? Depends on your usage. And you won't ever get a mirror finish, at least not with these stones. For what I do, the stones get the thing being sharpened plenty sharp.

I'll upload a photo later today.

Eze lap says its 1200.

[Jim Koepke]

Sam,

Welcome to the Creek. Your profile doesn't show a location. I may be guessing wrong due to your mention of asking this question on a British woodworking site, are you in England or Europe?

Have fun,

jtk

[Matthew N. Masail]

I've only used the DMT 1200grit diamond, it does a good job but is not a mirrot finish, you need a water\oil\strop stone for that. I consider them 1 step before that last.

[Derek Cohen]

I have a "broken in" fine (600) EZ that I have used for about 10 years. My estimate is that it is the equivalent now of a 3-4000 waterstone. Wonderful little stone (6x2"). However this probably took about 2-3 years to get to this level.

I have also just purchased a new Coarse (250) and fine (600) in 8x3", and they cut so very differently. I plan to be using them to restore a bunch of moulding planes, and they will get a work out this way. Still, that is not expected to be make big difference for some time.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Judson Green]

Heres a couple of photos...

IMG_20140914_122102_533.jpg IMG_20140914_122212_241.jpg

Oh and these are the 3×8 ezelap stones. I strop after - more or less doing the Sellers thing, gonna be switching soon to a hollow grind one stone method.

Are these pictures good enough?

[Sam Cui]

Thanks everyone, the pics will will be helpful as future reference.
I'm not expecting mirror polish from this, but I do expect it to eventually become finer than my coarser plates, but as of now it is only between the coarse and fine plates which is why I'm a little disappointed. I should mention that I use a strop with the Veritas green stropping compound. I do get a mirror finish if I strop after P2000 sandpaper (sorry don't know what the American equivalent is). Should I expect it to polish after the extra fine plate (after it's worn in) or is it too big a grit jump?
Sam

[Sam Cui]

Yes, I am situated in the Netherlands. If you are interested I go by the user name J_SAMa on UKWorkshop.

[Sam Cui]

I just grabbed my glue removal beater 1" Olympia chsel so it isn't real flat but, you can see the progressive scratch pattern These are DMT Dia-Sharp in Coarse:

dia-sharp (1).jpg

Fine:

dia-sharp (2).jpg

Extra Fine:

dia-sharp (3).jpg

and Extra-extra Fine:

dia-sharp (4).jpg

• BLUE (C) Diamond - Coarse
  
  Quickly sharpen a neglected edge (325 mesh, 45 micron)
• RED (F) Diamond - Fine
  
  Put a keen edge on a maintained tool (600 mesh, 25 micron)
• GREEN (E) Diamond - Extra Fine
  
  Sharpen to a razor edge (1200 mesh, 9 micron)
• TAN (EE) Diamond - Extra-Extra Fine
  
  Extra fine polish to an extreme edge (8000 mesh, 3 micron)

Thank you, I see that your extra fine is quite a bit finer than mine. One would expect though the extra extra fine to be much finer... Is that plate also quite new?

[glenn bradley]

Thank you, I see that your extra fine is quite a bit finer than mine. One would expect though the extra extra fine to be much finer... Is that plate also quite new?

Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned. The stone is brand new and has probably seen about 10 minutes of use which was me just testing it out.

[David Weaver]

Should I expect it to polish after the extra fine plate (after it's worn in) or is it too big a grit jump?
Sam

After it's broken in, you will be able to. Mine is somewhere between new and derek's, and I'd suppose that the finish seems similar to a 2000 or 3000 grit waterstone. You could polish from that with most of the waterstones that are out there. They wear to what feels like the 2000 grit-ish level pretty quickly.