EZE-LAP Diamond Sharpening Stones Review
American-made diamond plates with a continuous surface. Cheaper than DMT, and the flat face suits narrow blades better.
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Diamond plates all do the same fundamental thing — diamond grit bonded to a steel substrate that does not wear or dish — and then differ in one visible way: whether the surface is continuous or perforated.
DMT’s DuoSharp plates have holes through the face. EZE-LAP’s are continuous. Each has a real advantage and it is worth choosing deliberately.
Continuous, and who it suits
A perforated plate clears swarf into the holes and cuts a little faster. The trade is that a narrow blade — a carving gouge, a marking knife, the tip of a kitchen knife — can catch on the edge of a hole and get a nick.
EZE-LAP’s continuous surface has nothing to catch on. If a meaningful share of your sharpening is narrow tools rather than chisels and plane irons, that is the deciding argument.
The cost is clogging. With nowhere for swarf to go, the surface loads up faster and needs wiping during a session. Use it with a splash of water and wipe it clean; a loaded plate that seems to have stopped cutting is almost always just dirty, not worn.
Medium and coarse is a shaping pair
Be clear about what this combination is for. Coarse removes metal fast — reground bevels, chipped edges, the initial flattening of a chisel back. Medium refines that to a working edge.
Neither polishes. A blade off a medium diamond plate will cut, and it will not leave a finished surface on timber. The last step is a fine waterstone, a fine diamond plate, or a strop charged with compound.
Most shops end up with exactly that: a coarse/medium plate for the heavy work and one fine stone for finishing.
The other job it does
Any diamond plate is the flattening reference for waterstones. A few strokes across the coarse side with water brings a dished waterstone back to flat in seconds, and this plate is cheap enough that using it for that duty does not feel wasteful.
Size
At 3 x 8 in this is a comfortable bench plate for chisels and most irons. A 10 in plate suits a full-width smoothing plane iron better, because the whole stroke stays on the stone. For everything narrower, the smaller plate is easier to store and easier to hold.
What works
- A continuous diamond surface with no holes, so narrow blades, carving gouges and knife tips cannot catch on a perforation
- Double-sided medium and coarse on a 3 x 8 in plate covers repair and shaping, and the included pad stops it sliding on the bench
- Noticeably cheaper than the equivalent DMT plate while doing the same job for general shop sharpening
What doesn't
- A continuous surface clogs faster than a perforated one, so it needs wiping and an occasional clean to keep cutting
- Medium and coarse is a shaping and repair combination — you still need a finer stone or a strop to finish an edge
- A 3 x 8 in plate is shorter than a 10 in one, which shows when honing a wide plane iron with a full-length stroke
Worth comparing against
- Check price
DMT
DMT W250FCNB DuoSharp Bench Stone, Fine/Coarse, 10 in