Thread: I Found It Over There

Originally Posted by Iceni

From what I've found Dennis the cut is more important than the lap.

A video would be nice! I know they are not easy to make. Thanks for the instructing post.

Originally Posted by Iceni

Your first cut should be to get the stone to sit at the correct angle. If your rock has a grain you need to look for this and cut the stone so it offers the grain to you. This means you will cut with the grain.

You mean cut along the layer correct?

yeah, You should be looking to make the honing face on one layer. If the stone has tight layers this is very hard, Likewise if the stone is just a layer-less block it's unimportant. When you have layers that you can easily pick between, and you can cut so you can only see 1 layer then you should try to do this. It'll help reduce the chance that the inclusions in the stone will appear on the honing face. And it looks better and you get an even surface in terms of hardness/grit.

Or would it be HCAD? (hone crafting aquisition disorder)

there is a series of wet sanding machines available that I have been thinking would be the thing for lapping. I don't have one, in fact I have only ever seen pictures of them. There are a ton of different belts available for them and are available in silica carbide and diamond as well as several others that I don't recognize. The medium size units are around $1k and the big big ones around $7k so you would want to hang in at the medium level, unless either you hd sales like no ones business or a wheelbarrow full of cash to dispose of. I am hand lapping in the kitchen sink right now, and probably will be for a while as my budget for toys has been cut off. I do however have some toys that I could and may sell as a fund raiser. If you get a wet sander let me know how it works!

good point on the truer the cut the less lapping there is to do. Some times i will try to regrind a face just to make lapping easier, however it can also make it worse and with all things in life that require any skill, practice always helps. I am finding little things that help all the time, but can be so long winded to try to point out one little thing. Renting tools can be a big help. If you can go down and rent a 10" wet saw and see how it runs. Often you can get weekend deals, and the price is an easier payment than purchasing.

1k for a wet sander is out of my budget, can buy a lot of stones for that with the guarqntee theyll be good

That is why I use the dia flat lapping plates!

Thats where I stand, I want to do this for fun, not like im starting a quarry, but I do want some good ways to get results without investing 12 hours in 1 stone, and also to do it without dust.

a lapping plate and a rented wet saw would be the way to go. It has been a few years, but I recall $30 for the weekend for a 10" wet saw. If I could, I would rent, however I do live 100 miles past the edge of the earth, so I will leave that part up to the guys in the more developed areas.