Five-fold symmetric diamond crystals (FSDCs) have been grown on a large variety of substrates by hot filament chemical vapour deposition (CVD) methods. High density, adherent films of FSDCs have been prepared on carbon steel with a thermal sprayed WC-Co interlayer, and their quality, adhesion and tribological behaviour were investigated. The diamond films show excellent adhesion under Rockwell indentation testing and when subjected to high-speed, high-load, long-time reciprocating dry sliding ball-on-flat wear tests against a Si(3)N(4) counter-face in ambient air. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.