I own and use a 3K,6K,8K and 16K Shapton Hones. I agree with JimmyH-AD. I too had the privilege to have a friendly conversation with gentleman he mentioned, and learned a great deal about the Shapton's hones.

By monitoring the surface of my 16K hone, I noticed it was NOT flat and purchased the DGLP. The fact is the Shapton's are indeed a well engineered "system" and a critical-but unfortunately relatively expensive part of that system is the DGLP. After wittnessing firsthand the change in the surface shape of my 16K, it was necessary to lap the hone.So why not do what Shapton recommends