Originally Posted by
kaptain_zero
For those of you who believe that 0.001" is too much, I just hopped over to the Shapton site and checked the specs on the two Diamond Reference Plates they offer.
The Diamond Glass reference plate is accurate to 5 micron or 0.0001968498" and sells for a quite reasonable $289.00. But, you say... you want MORE... err LESS.... Ok, enter the big gun in Diamond Reference plates, the two sided, cast iron model which is accurate to an incredible 3.5 microns... that's 0.0001377949" for you non-metric types and it goes for a paltry $489.00. :D The two sides, one for lapping stones and the other for lapping bevels on plane irons and chisels etc. and would not be suitable for razors based on it's pattern with rather large holes to swallow up swarf etc.
So in a sense, you would have to spend at least $234.00 more to gain approximately 0.0008" in accuracy across an 8" length over a DMT.
Many of us have been quite happy using nothing more than wet/dry paper on a floor tile or a piece of reasonable (we're assuming now) flat glass. I doubt they approch anything near the 0.001" that DMT specs for their diamond plates. Lets not forget that 50 years ago, when straight shaving was more the norm... few if any gents went to these lengths to get their hones flat... I recall my dads hones ( he was a barber and was quite skilled with the straight), they were all clearly hollowed in the center from years and years of use... I suspect they all matched up more or less as he didn't seem to have any problems getting business in his shop for shaves nor haircuts.
I'm all for these kinds of discussions but sometimes we need to do a reality check to keep us in the real world. Well... at least I need to... I'm usually the first one to buy something new and improved only to find out that the old stuff worked just as well.
Regards
Christian