Just about to order a Diamond Tool Holder

I've used the Diamond engineering holder for some time now and it is my go-to holder. It's not the end-all for everything, still have to make specialized bits from time to time but it works well. The added advantage is that if you do something stupid, and jam the bit in the work, the bit just slides down in the holder rather than snapping off or breaking a gear in the lathe head. Gives a nice finish if I do my part with using it.
 
I have a couple of them from back when they were sold by Bay-Com. They work fine for general turning - they can work for threading, but there's absolutely no advantage to doing so. I used mine quite a bit at first but only rarely use them anymore. Once ground I find it faster to walk over to the grinder and touch up a conventional cutter than grinding the diamond cutter. A drawback to the diamond is the amount of material that must be removed to restore the cutter to 'like new'. The Wimberley tool holder was made to address that, but it never seemed to catch on - and is available only in size extra-small. While both designs are clever, there's a reason neither of them supplanted the standard designs.

GsT
 
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