Thread: Lapping Methods

Yep, just an ordinary glass cutting board.
Can't use them for cutting anyway cause they dull all your kitchen knives, lol
You can also dumpster dive some old glass cooking plate. Its a little bit of a harder surface.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I find your having the Swaty for all of those years without lapping it interesting. Did you use it during those years to refresh your edges and was it effective? Once you found the forums and lapped the Swaty was there a perceptible improvement in performance ? I have long been fascinated by the fact that the old barbers I knew never lapped any of their hones (to my knowledge). Some of them that were sold to me by old barbers or their progeny were dished when I got them yet they had still been using them. I think that because the barber hones length necessitates the use of the X pattern just as that method will be effective on a warped blade it will also be effective on a stone that isn't consistently flat.

I went into Chicago Cutlery one day and said I wanted to try a straight razor. The clerk sold me a new Dovo #41 Fritz Bracht and an Illinois strop. The Dovo wasn't shave ready and ripped up my face. I went back two times asking for help and the clerk insisted that the razors come sharp from the factory. The second time, a customer overheard me complaining and told me that I needed a hone. The clerk objected but I insisted and he sold me the Swaty. A few strokes on the Swaty solved the problem and I shaved happily ever after.

Lynn gets ****ed off at me when I say that, if all you are doing is touching up a blade with a good bevel, you can shave for your whole life with just a barbers hone.

Now I'm going to commit heresy. If all you have is a barber hone, over time you adapt your technique to get good shaves from it. The same goes for a dished out coticule.

Today, there are more options, which is a good thing, in general. The downside is that increased technological sophistication often masks poor technique. For example, all the old barber manuals are very clear that you should never move the blade 90° to the edge (which is the way that almost everyone on SRP shaves) but with an oblique or sliding motion (what some people call the "scything stroke"). I developed a scything stroke naturally and it goes a long way to making a blade feel and act sharper and smoother than it is. The old barbers got good results from "inferior" technology because they had superior technique. Today, we have superior technology and inferior technique.

For the past 5 years I have been using the DMT 125 and 325 plates for a major part of my lapping and I'm happy with the results up to 8k stones. I didn't think the 325 would be fine enough for the 16k S GS and was proven not to polish it enough I started using the Shapton 3k GS to lap polish the 16k, still out to lunch on the results but the stone is nicely polished not and it feel good. Not sure if the 3k against the 16k is causing trouble with glasing but I wouldn't think so. I've often though of getting a second 3k stone to cut grooves into, making a polishing plate basicly for the 16k Hey I can dream of being rich can't I

Originally Posted by 0livia

In that case, yes.

Don't flatten one hone with another.
We did that with 60 x 80 cm lithos in school and ended up with all dished ones. Great joy, LOL

If you do stone against stone, they will eventually compliment each other. The concave (dished) stone will wear the other stone to become convex. I've heard that lapping using this method requires 3 stones and are lapped something like this:
A-B
B-C
C-A
C-B
B-A
A-C....

I've never tried it, but it seems a little complicated. You'd have to mark each stone if you use the same grits.

Makes sense. We used sand inbetween, cause the stones are very much the same.

Originally Posted by bjorn

I've gone from sandpaper on glass to a Atoma 400 grit diamond plate, which was a big improvement and a it creates a lot less of a mess.

Yamashta san speaks highly of the Atoma plates & uses a 1200 (I think) for slurry making with his hones. Next purchase for me.

Originally Posted by 0livia

Yep, just an ordinary glass cutting board.
Can't use them for cutting anyway cause they dull all your kitchen knives, lol
You can also dumpster dive some old glass cooking plate. Its a little bit of a harder surface.

Yep, mines an oven door glass from a dumpster

I flatten with the DMT first than polish with another stone. Seems ok to me, not seeing light under a flat edge, so I'm happy

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Yamashta san speaks highly of the Atoma plates & uses a 1200 (I think) for slurry making with his hones. Next purchase for me.

That's where I got mine, he told me the 400 would "waste" to much of the stone if it's used for making slurry, but since I wanted a pure lapping plate I went with the 400. I'm currently considering getting a 1200 for raising slurry and maybe a Sigma Power 2000 from him for bevel setting.

I'm wondering if the DMT duosharp coarse/fine would work well for naturals? 320/600 grit with polka dot holes. Should theoretically help with the sticktion and give a smooth surface with the 600 grit. Plus they come in 10" sizes.

Originally Posted by Leighton

I'm wondering if the DMT duosharp coarse/fine would work well for naturals? 320/600 grit with polka dot holes. ...

I've used 'em on a couple of Thuringians (and some barber hones too); worked ok.