The quality and efficiency of slicing will be reduced if the abrasives on the surface of diamond wire saw shed in sawing. Generally, the diamond abrasives are held on the surface of electroplated diamond wire saw by a nickel-plated layer, and the abrasive retention state, reflecting abrasive shedding, can be characterized by the plastic deformation of the plating layer at the interface between the nickel-plated layer and the abrasive. To gain an in-depth understanding of the abrasive shedding mechanism, a finite element model of the double-cone diamond abrasive embedded in a nickel-plated layer was established in this paper to research the effects of the residual compressive stress and hardness of the nickel-plated layer as well as the protrusion height of the diamond abrasive on the abrasive retention capacity. The results show that the presence of the residual compressive stress in the nickel-plated layer resulted in the decrease of the abrasive retention capacity. And the higher hardness of the nickel-plated layer could enhance its abrasive retention capacity. Furthermore, the depth of the diamond abrasive inside the nickel-plated layer was decreased with the increase of its protrusion height, which would reduce the abrasive retention capacity. Based on the results of the finite element analysis, a calculation procedure of abrasive shedding rate was presented. Subsequently, the slicing experiment of a single crystal silicon rod was carried out by the Meyer Burger RTD6800 multi-wire sawing machine and the electroplated diamond wire saw with a core wire diameter of 65μm. The abrasive shedding rate of the diamond wire saw caused by sawing was analyzed theoretically and experimentally. The research work is of great significance to improve the quality detection and evaluation of electroplated diamond wire saw.