1st completed lapping film hone

I was successful at honing my first razor today. Was not perfect by any means. The razor was a Shumate. I was unable to shave with it before, but now I could finish a shave with it. I used 12 u, then 5 u, then 3 u, then finished up with 1 u. Pretty proud to just be able to use the razor that I honed my self. Looking forward to failures and successes. I am very happy with my first real try. Looking forward to getting a 1K king stone for setting bevels and a 4 k stone. I will finish with film from there,

Congratulations, sounds like a good job.

What are some of the details on the practicalities? For example, to what do you attach the lapping film? A block of something flat? Is the lapping film used up after, or do you think you could get more hones out of the sheet? etc.

One of my favourite hones is basically diamond lapping film glued to a metal base - AKA an Atoma 1K diamond plate. It's all I've used as a bevel setter for quite a while now and works quite nicely in that role, at least IMO. If you turned it upside down I'm thinking the back plate would make a really good base for higher grit lapping films.

James.

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

Congratulations, sounds like a good job.

What are some of the details on the practicalities? For example, to what do you attach the lapping film? A block of something flat? Is the lapping film used up after, or do you think you could get more hones out of the sheet? etc.

One of my favourite hones is basically diamond lapping film glued to a metal base - AKA an Atoma 1K diamond plate. It's all I've used as a bevel setter for quite a while now and works quite nicely in that role, at least IMO. If you turned it upside down I'm thinking the back plate would make a really good base for higher grit lapping films.

James.

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I bought a piece of marble 3 x 8 and sanded edges smooth. Use a spray bottle to wet stone cut a piece of film about 3 x 6 place on top of wet stone then take spine and work bubbles out. I then worked each grit about 40 strokes. making sure to keep water on sheets also. I did at times put a finger on far end of razor to ensure even pressure while honing. The 12 micron is used for bevel setting, then the 5 micron, then the 3, then the 1 micron for polishing. Those are the steps I followed at least.

First off let me say I have no personal experience with lapping film. I have seen quite a few threads on it, and it seems to me that some of them say if you back the film with card stock it gets just a tiny bit of cushion and makes a smoother edge. The search engine should find a lot of threads. Awesome that you have found a level of success. I hope you can now find the next level without a lot of challenges.

Congrats that first successful honing is a proud moment and a sweet shave. A bit of practice and you will be surprised just how far you can take each grit. Good luck and happy honing. Ed

I have been playing with something similar-- the PSA backed diamond film from Lee Valley. I think it goes from 15 to 5 to 1 to 0.5 micron, and I stuck them to flat marble tile and put the tiles in a walnut base.
Attachment 147330
They really cut, but without making a lot of swarf. Good for mid-range progression, and might even work for a full finish, with enough stropping (or pasted strop). I'll typically throw some non-diamond stones in the mix, but the films seem reasonably impressive to me.

... and they apparently have anti-gravity powers as well...

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Originally Posted by Atchbo

I have been playing with something similar-- the PSA backed diamond film from Lee Valley. I think it goes from 15 to 5 to 1 to 0.5 micron, and I stuck them to flat marble tile and put the tiles in a walnut base.
Attachment 147330
They really cut, but without making a lot of swarf. Good for mid-range progression, and might even work for a full finish, with enough stropping (or pasted strop). I'll typically throw some non-diamond stones in the mix, but the films seem reasonably impressive to me.

... and they apparently have anti-gravity powers as well...

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Glad to see someone else trying and getting success this way. Best of luck and I bet we will only get better at it as time goes by.