GUNS Magazine DMT Stones & Magnetic Base

Most of the metal parts in gun kits come as-cast and in need of a lot of work to enhance the final product. After casting they are bead blasted but need mold lines and imperfections removed. I use a variety of files for the yeoman work of removing casting gates and obvious imperfections. To do the final shaping I resort to Arkansas stones and oil, which generally leaves me filthy as a dirt road. Worse, because the oily grit is difficult to remove from under fingernails and skin.

Lately I’ve dragooned DMT Dia-Sharp Bench Stones into the task of removing file marks. The grit size is carefully controlled in the stone’s manufacture and the steel to which the diamond is affixed is truly flat. Since they are lubricated and clean up with water, they create far less of a mess.

These stones require frequent lubrication or you risk causing scratches in the surface as you drag old steel through your polish area. I keep an old plastic tub with water on my bench and it’s easy to develop the habit of dunking the stone once or twice a minute—and ten times cleaner than oil stones!

Stones are also for sharpening, of course, and while I don’t employ any of the large bench stones DMT makes, these small ones are perfect for touching up my chisels as I inlet wood. Fancy maple as pictured needs extremely sharp tools to prevent disasters and the Magna Base is perfect for holding them. No surprise, the base holds my chisels at the ready, too.
By Jeff John

DMT Diamond stones easily polish gun parts for finish or refinish while keeping contours straight.
The round stone, used for sharpening serrated blades was dragooned into helping finish rounded
countours, and the flat stones did the yeoman work truing the flat surfaces. These long-lasting
stones are an intermediate step between files and papers blessed because they lubricate with water
and are far easier to clean up after use. The frizzens on these locks are already hardened, and
the stones are the only way to polish these surfaces prior to the 400-grit paper finish.

New from DMT, the Magnabase holds DMT stones securely for sharpening knives, or in this case,
chisels (Coarse and Fine stones shown). Perfect for quick chisel touch ups while inletting.
Bigger stones, of course, are available as well for those conventional chores of sharpening a
large knife. The base then frees you to use both hands to guide the blade.

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