The range of diamond sharpening products from Holzer Hartstofftechnik, in Austria, is very wide and has impressed us by both its effectiveness and its fair pricing.  The company is run by a man who has spent his life in the diamond tooling industry and who has now brought those skills to the hand tool industry.  Being based in Austria, ski edge sharpening is a huge focus for many users of this equipment and if there are any skiers out there, you may want to know that the DS111 slipstones are firm favourites in this application.  For the rest of us, these are excellent products for maintaining a razor sharp edge on tools whether that be in the workshop or on the move.

For everyday use in the workshop, a bench stone is essential.  Whether you need to sharpen plane irons, chisels, gouges or any other tool, there is little that you cannot approach with such stones.  These products use perforated base technology, providing a reservoir to retain the detritus of grinding, ensuring fast, clean cutting and freedom from scratching.  Easily cleaned with water after use - as they should be, then dried.  The 6" x 2" size makes them useful on the bench yet still portable enough for the tool box.  the base of the stones incorporates non-slip rubber strips that really work - see photo.

In my opinion (!) there should be no craftperson's pocket that does not contain some sort of slipstone, ready at hand for touching up the edge of whatever tool is to hand and needful of such attention.

For sure, if you can't find a slipstone on this page to suit your purposes, then you probably won't find one anywhere.  The range here includes keyring slips, always at hand and complete with split ring to attach to your keys.  A little larger are the DS111 slips available in a range of grits, either singly in a leather sheath, or as a set of three in a presentation pack, one of each grade.

If a smaller format slipstone meets your needs and those of your pocket, but you feel the need for a range of grits, then the DS Rainbow pack of three 70 mm x 25 mm slips may be "just the ticket"

One of the most versatile of these tools, especially around the workshop. is the set of three shaped slips known as DS Slim Lap.  This set features slips in three grit grades produced in the form of 63 mm x 19 mm (working surface) files with handles, as shown.  What makes them so handy is that the "blade" in  elevation tapers to a quite fine thickness so that the slip can be introduced into a small clearance to effect sharpening, de-burring and other abrasive tasks.  This has made these products especially popular amongst machinists in engineering who find the ability to touch up a tool edge without needing to remove the tool from the toolpost can save hours of setting-up time.

All of these handy tools, with the exception of the Slim Lap, employ the same perforated base technology as used in the bench stones with the same advantages when it come to fast, clean sharpening.  Because the Slim Laps are designed to be used where space is possibly restricted, and sharpening movements are perforce very small, these are manufactured with a continuous diamond surface.  This also avoids the possibility of a small or pointed tool tip digging into the relief pockets such as found in perforated base stones.  What a delight to be able to offer products which cater for almost every eventuality!

Apparently having their origins in the needs of Nordic fishermen to sharpen their fishing hooks, these pocket files earn their place in my toolbox as the ideal tools for touching up the edges of hollowing tools and inside the flutes of gouges.  Although our conical hones are good for this use in the workshop, when out and about these pocket tools are very handy.  There are three versions of these tools.  The DSCS features a fine, conical blade tapering from 4 mm to 2 mm diameter.  The DCHRS has a half-round, or D-section blade, 4 mm diameter, with a hook-sharpening groove incorporated into the curved surface. The DSC is a reversible double-ended tool featuring both the conical hone at one end of the blade and the half round at the other, giving a flat and a curved surface: a groove is also incorporated for the sharpening of fishing hooks.  All have knurled aluminium handles into which the blade can be stored when not in use, yet provide firm fixing with a quick twist of the ferrule.  To complete this neat tool, each also features a pocket clip so, hopefully "Where is ...?" becomes a term of the past.  Since angling and woodworking are not mutually exclusive, maybe these are truly multi-funtion tools?

In truth there have always been plenty of alternatives for honing flat blades and external curves.  For internal curves, things were never quite so good, but slipstones were - and are - available with radiused edges.  But as the trend moved more towards the use of diamond honing and lapping tool, everyone seemed to have forgotten the needs of woodturners and carvers, in particular, where honing the inside of gouges is still very much a requirement of the craft.  That's why we were especially pleased to see these conical hones included in the Holzer line-up.  Because gouge flutes come in different radii, so do these tools.  The smallest, with the red handle, tapers from 3 to 9 mm; the middle sized covers the range 9 to 19 mm whilst the largest completes the range with a taper from 19 to 32 mm.  Available singly or as a boxed set of three, these tools make honing inside gouges a quick and simple task - which removes the excuse for not doing it!!  Sorry about that you lazy people!

A slipstone that can be carried your pocket - literally in your credit card holder if you are so inclined - means that you will never be caught out without the means to touch up the edge of your tools, your pocket knife or even the scissors on your Swiss Army knife.

The range of credit card format slips offered here gives the choice of single sided versions in either coarse, 325, or fine,  600, diamond grit sizes, or a double-sided version with both of the grits, one per side.

Needle files - or as I was taught to call them - Swiss files, come in a range of shapes and this set is no exception.  They are also available in either fine or medium grits.  We supply them in very economical packs of five shapes in a handy plastic wallet.

Each set contains one each of flat, half-round, round, triangular and square cross-section, in the selected grit grade.

If you need a hard-wearing file to work in very confined areas, then these could be your answer.  Such as ... ...?  Think about sharpening a small Forstner or sawtooth bit, sharpening router cutters, touching up the teeth on a fine handsaw - and so on and so on and ... ...

It is vitally important to dress your grinding wheel if the wheel is to sharpen efficiently. Many folk use a single point dresser but, unless these are well guided, they can leave a somewhat uneven surface.  By contrast this excellent dresser has a 45 mm face width, covered with coarse diamond grit so that even a 40 mm wide wheel is completely covered and the surface of the wheel should always be left completely planar, provided the dresser is used correctly and regularly.  Instructions for use are included on the package.  Effective and economical - what more can one ask?