Thread: honing the hone

Below you see a pic of my hone, 8K side. When I put my DMT plate on it there is a noticeable separation from the DMT plate, on the corners. You can see the top left and bottom right are just a little bit darker. I lapped the hell out of this stone and didn't seem to make a dent on lowering the center to level of the corners. Is this normal, do you have to do a heavy lapping session when you first get a norton 4/8K?

Yes heavy lapping sessions are normal. Make a pencil grid and go at it. Watch a good movie while you're at it.

I wouldn't know if it is normal - mine needed no lapping at all, for example. But it obviously varies a lot, and perhaps these newer Nortons are not as flat as the batches from the days when I bought mine. In any event, yours clearly needs lapping so as Blix said, draw that pencil grid and get to it! Lapping is fun

James.

HA !!!! Jimbo Roo Lapping ain't no fun

We did a brand new one at the Denver Meet Up and it was a good two hours worth of lapping on the 325 DMT...
If I had been at home I would have switched to the 120, also not to sound weird but honestly I do most serious lapping in the shower, it goes much faster, and keeps peace at my home since I don't create a huge mess

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I do most serious lapping in the shower,...

great, thanks for plantin' that image Glen....

Glen's been honing so long his ass is 325 grit!!

James.

Since I don't have a 120 DMT and wouldn't want to buy one for just righting my norton. Do you recomend me buying some type of sandpaper to cut down on my lapping time?

frankly I use a ceramic tile 4 clamps and 400 grit waterproof sand paper, throw on some music, get a lot of water a space you don't mind making a big mess in (I used my bathroom counter) and just lap away it took me almost 3 hours to do both my 8000 as well as my 4000 Norton combo pack. oh and get a few pack of the sand paper you will go threw at least one full one your first lapping, or at least I did...

In general make sure you don't run the DMT a long way past the ends of the hone or you can create the convexing you're trying to fix.

I use a granite slab calibrated to o.oo1um with 220 grit sandpaper to lap my stones. A flat counter top will also work. The pencil grid mark is vital to see how you are doing. Any grit finer that 300 will take you much longer to lap. Once it is flat then a take a few minutes more with 1000 grit sand paper just to smooth the surface before use.