Thread: Flattening out waterstones

Do you have to buy a lapping stone to flatten out your Hones? Can you use wet fine grain sandpaper?

Originally Posted by bobski

Do you have to buy a lapping stone to flatten out your Hones? Can you use wet fine grain sandpaper?

Hi bobski,
Yes you can use wet and dry, if you do a search for wet and dry, you should find the threads.
Thanks post is in the wrong section though, perhaps a mod will move it for you.
All the best
Ed

I currently just use 325 wet & dry on a heavy glass sheet works fine

Wet dry works great as long as whatever is under it is flat. If you are going to buy one, an atoma is a great lapping plate. A little pricy but it soesnt stick to the stone like dmts do.

Originally Posted by bill3152

Wet dry works great as long as whatever is under it is flat. If you are going to buy one, an atoma is a great lapping plate. A little pricy but it soesnt stick to the stone like dmts do.

I have an atoma 400g and it seems to be good, though I don't have a point of reference.

wet dry works fine. You should draw a grid on the stone with pencil. About 1cm spacing on the lines will work. As you lap the lines will start to disappear. As long as you hold the stone flat as you lap, when the lines are gone the stone is as flat as the surface you lapped on. I have a couple of grits of diamond lapping plates. If I have a lot of lapping I try to start with course then go to smooth. It get a little messy as it is a wet process.

I used to use wet or dry 400 grit sandpaper on a marble tile that I purchased from Home Depot. Just wet the tile and lay the sandpaper on the tile, the water will create a suction that will hold it in place. I then use figure "8" pattern & rotate the stone 180 every 5-6 figure "8's". You will need to draw a grid pattern with a pencil as mentioned to ensure you have gotten it all. You will need to rise the paper before doing a final "check" to ensure that the slurry isn't removing the pencil marks & the sandpaper is. Yep, it's messy.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

I have an atoma 400g and it seems to be good, though I don't have a point of reference.

I have dmts also. The atomas don't stick like dmts do especially a jnat or phig. It also seems the atomas cut faster although its not a fair comparison as the dmt is much more worn. Atomas sell a replacement "sticker" that you can buy instead of buying the whole thing, and dmts are much heavier than atomas. Not that it matters though. I wouldn't want to drop either on my toe!

If you got more than one hone you can flatten them on each other.
With only two you risk getting one concave and the other convex but that you can get around with three of them...
Use hone A with B, B with C and then C with A.

Hi,

As a newbie on SR, i have another question on Flattening Stone:

Do we need to flattening the waterstone before every honing session or can we wait 2 or 3 (or more) honing sessions to do that?

see you... Flávio.