New To Me 1500 Diamond Break In?

[NorCalQ]

Just received a pair of 1500 diamond stones, “lightly used”.  They do look lightly used, although, who knows.  Thing is, when I ran my fingers over them, I could feel nubs on them.  Maybe that’s why the prior owner didn’t like them.  At any rate, rather than using them that way, I worked them over the edge of a scrap plane iron that I use for testing.  After working them for just a short time, I was able to get rid of most of the nubs or clumped stones, which is what I assumed they were.  Now the stones feel very smooth when moving over an edge.

Now…did I do the right thing or did I ruin the stones?  I figured, the amount I worked them was probably equal to about 1, maybe 2 knives and a plane iron is no harder than a knife, so I thought it would be ok.

[Organic]

I think you did exactly what needed to be done. New stones sometimes do have loosely adhered clumps of diamonds that fall off upon use. This is part of what happens during the break in process. The first few sharpening sessions with the stones produce a lot of diamond dust mixed in the the tiny metal shavings.

[tcmeyer]

I had a similar situation with an 800-grit stone a few years back.  The offending clusters of diamonds were oriented longitudinally, so they had resisted the normal break-in process.  They made some god-awful chips in my ZDP Delica (see photo below).  I clamped a piece of glass in the vise and within a very few strokes, the clusters were gone.

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Jason

[NorCalQ]

Thanks!  Just needed some reassurance I guess.  I knew I couldn’t do the stone any harm by using a plane iron, but I just needed to make sure.  Thank you.

[Author]

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