DMT damaged?

I bought a DMT 8E off Amazon and it has a ding and some scratches tried to capture it in photos


Should I send it back? This is my first DMT bought it after researching bevel setters.

Currently I set bevels on a king 1k

Send it back

The only way to figure out it it'll harm the stone is to use it ... then u might not be able to return it

When I got mine it (also from Amazon) had scratches too, that ding though doesn't look good though.

Scratches are not a concern but that ding is a problem. You will have to grind/file it down to keep from damaging an edge. Send it back. I had a similar thing with a CKTG 400/1000 but it was on the corner. I just filed it down flat because I did not want to mess with return shipping at that time.

Like they said... Scratches meh... Ding bad.

Yeah, the ding shouldn't be there. Hopefully it's not a DMT thing, but something that happened in shipping and handling further down the line. Send it back.

Better yet send it back and get atoma plates ... cost more but lasts a lot longer... I had each dmt for a couple months... I've had my atomas for two years now

I have DMT 6 inch extra coarse 220 grit i think It is so worn that raise a ultra fine slurry on my J-nats , just like tomo nagura
You can almost finish a razor on it ha h aha a

As stated the scratches are no biggie but the ding is unacceptable to me.

I used a DMT 220 for close to a decade as a lapping plate before buying a 140 to assist it. I think it depends on how you use them.

For lapping - I use my Atomas the same way I use DMTs and the Atomas out-perform/out-last the DMTs big-time.

Not saying they don't. I've not used one, but I hear the way they interrupt the diamonds (channels) does prevent stones sticking and prevents a lot of wear and I'd believe it. Most people who've recommended them to me do so because they ALLOW you to do what you are warned not to do with DMT's (basically lap without clearing the plate until the stone sticks... aka not using running/sufficient water during lapping).

But if you're killing a DMT in a few months, you're doing something wrong or got a very subpar DMT. My 220 lapped close to a thousand stones (possibly more), including washita's, trans arks, a dozen or more charnleys, A Frictionite or three, basically everything out there except other diamond plates (That's a lie, it did polish down a burr on a cheaper diamond plate I bought later that had a high spot on a corner that needed fixing... so even other diamond plates).

If I were buying a stone just for lapping these days; I'd go with Atoma myself (partly for curiosities sake, mostly based on reputation/recommendations); but DMT's are in no way going to die in months when used properly to lap (though the E might... it's not for lapping stones). I don't believe there's a person out there... including stone vendors; who use them THAT much more heavily than I do. I suspect people just use them carelessly. In fact as I recall Jarrod said a few years back he was replacing them every few months (as a stone vendor), but only because they were slowing down and on a cost/time basis it made sense for someone doing as many stones as he was to replace them that frequently.


Also, the plate was bought to set bevels... which I'm pretty sure no one ever, anywhere prefers the Atoma's for. In fact even Atoma fans have told me they leave absolutely HORRIFIC edges on razors... like... scary when viewed under a scope.

Not even a close contest for me that the 10x4" 'duosharp' WMT250CXWB is much, much better as a lapping plate than all other DMT options except for the XX 10x4" plate. I don't know why people insist on buying the diasharp continuous ones on the nickel slabs, I guess because they never tried the ones with the holes. I'd ask that that be considered defective by DMT, which it likely should be; a divot in the surface which is otherwise perfectly planer is not an issue and I often remember seeing them that way but on the 'rails' it will be forever a bother. Get yourself a 10x4 duosharp and don't look back.

They're very fast on the X side (but not quite as fast as the XX plate, and it loses its fastball much faster than XX). Lasts a long time. Just as flat as any 3x8" nickel they sell. Not going to get stuck on the stone all the time like the diasharps do if you're using alum-ox soaking stones of whatever brand. And if you must lap finer than the "C" in that XC two-sider you can just buy sheets of wet/dry and wrap them tightly around the 10x4" and rub on that, works fast like a charm once the DMT's plane's been imparted to the whetstone via the coarser grits.

Well i pretty much smoothen it , this way by lapping a lot of stones with it And a few jasper hard stones ha ha ah a
It has some life left , but it should be used for a final lapping not to wear a 1 sm stone with it ha h ah a
Now im wiser and everything goes throu the glass plate first . Diamond plates are only for refreshing and making slurry .