Thread: Lapping Ceramics

Seems you have the lapping question sorted but this may be of interest.

I had a problem with chipped edges on a Spyderco fine hone and everything made it worse till I used contrarian thinking.
I found the softest Arkansas stone I had, actually a white Waschita and sawed into that using a slurry of powdered household cleaner. Took some time & cut deeply into the Waschita but sorted the bevels without any more chipping.

I just posted a thread in the basic honing section about some open mesh aluminum oxide resin bonded wet/dry sheets that I used last night. One of the hones I lapped (although not pictured in the thread) is a ceramic from Lee Valley and it worked just fine. There was hardly any wear on the mesh so it can be used many many times as it is double sided too doubling the lonvegity of this product. I just use a small amount of double sided tape to hold it still and went to work. Good Luck.

Originally Posted by GadgetGeek

I just picked up some diamond bench hones from Princess Auto, $14 for three grits. I don't expect much, but they are cheap and big, so lots of area to wear out. gotta love those Power Fist tools, cheap enough for jobs you only do once. I had to hold back from the dremel buffing kit. another day.

I don't know what these are, but if they ain't flat

they are not doing what you need them too.

Zeth, I saw that thread, good idea there!
Kevin, the point of the lapping on the ceramics (at least the way I'm doing it) is to refresh the surface and get to fresh abrasive. the ceramics are so hard that instead of wearing to new surfaces like water stones do, they wear smooth, and eventually stop cutting.
I guess I'm a little different that most here when I say that I don't care if my stones are flat. Yes, I want them to be generally flat, so that honing is easier, but I don't need the super flat surface that most of you guys are looking for.
I also use the same set of hones for all my sharp shineys where as most seem to have a dedicated razor set.
But its all good, I generally break the rules, sometimes to my own detriment, but heck, I'm having far too much fun!

Originally Posted by GadgetGeek

the point of the lapping on the ceramics (at least the way I'm doing it) is to refresh the surface and get to fresh abrasive.

That's quite a healthy approach, it will lead you to an increasingly flat surface over time anyway, without wasting material.

It's pretty much what I plan to do with my coticule and Dragon's Tongue (The corners are slightly low but it doesn't affect their use.)

Originally Posted by GadgetGeek

not to be picky, but ceramics and Japanese water stones are two very different animals, and lapping has a slightly different goal.
But I appreciate the help.

You will find this out in a hurry if you spend any time lapping a Shapton (or probably any other ceramic) with a DMT while slurry is present. I've worn my poor old DMT 325 grit down to the point it could probably be used as a barber hone because the slurry attacked the nickel or whatever they use to bind the diamonds.

My experince has been that lapping tends to produce a smoother surface on spyderco bench stones. So I would dispute the idea that you can regain coarseness by lapping fused ceramics. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

It would all depend on the stone you were lapping with, it would be possible to polish a ceramic stone to the point it wouldn't cut at all. I'm using pretty course diamonds and it does leave a scratch patten, but I don't see it as a bad thing. basically the way I understand it is you want to cut the top layer off of the stone, revealing the new sharp abrasive. As opposed to a soft water stone where there is a constant supply of fresh abrasive as the stone wears, and the lapping is to preserve/ achieve flatness.
It could be that you are lapping with too fine a medium?

Well, I was testing with a medium ceramic lapped with a DMT XXC. The lapped surface is not as coarse as the new one I have (disappointing). Maybe it's working for you on the finer ceramic grits? (Either way if it's working for you then that's great.)

The Spydercos will change their effective grit rating based on which grit it's lapped with, I did one side of a UF with a DMT E and it became a much finer hone, than the 10-14K it's reported to be.