Thread: The Question of hone flatness

Be aware of temperature gradients also. If ambient temp is 68° and you are using water that feels warm to your hand (say 100°) it can easily cause movement on an aluminum plate like an Atoma until the temperature stabilizes. The resultant lack of flatness won't really matter but it might cause you to lap off more stone than necessary because the plate is a bit warped. Then as it warms up it will change, so it will look like your pencil grid is being erased in a different spot. This happens on a lot smaller scale with the steel diamond plates and I don't know about the glass reinforced nylon ones, don't have any. It also makes my Shapton Pro stones move a bit. I always try to use room temperature water.

Stones being perfectly flat certainly isn't absolutely necessary but makes for much faster repeat honing on a razor when you come back to it, since you don't have to do any complex strokes to compensate for any areas that aren't making contact because the hone has a slightly different surface contour than the last time you used it. It becomes a bit more important if you do a progression through multiple stones - but even then they don't have to be necessarily flat - just if they're all the same contour it makes things easier and faster.

Personally I prefer flat stones but it isn't as though it's impossible to hone on a surface that isn't flat.

I have much the same experience with Nortons not swelling, same for the Shapton Glass. However the Naniwa SSs seem to grow with water contact. As a result of this thread I will hence check for flat more often and compare wet and dry stones. Good thought, thanks.

Exact flatness must be achieved just before going on your hanging leather strop which you of course hold so flat. And the leather is deemed flat. Then it goes to your flat face and whiskers.....

Well it took a while. I got a new 220 wet dry sandpaper and went to the kitchen counter. the counter is granite and flat. I ck the counter with a pocket measure the stainless steel type you know the type with the adjustable bar. it's not too long to have a wave. I ck every stone I have the 1K was the worse. I flattened it first then went to the 3/8K and the 5K then the 12K and the last was the 20K Suehiro. I took a pencil and marked the surface as Lynn showed on the YouTube video and worked until it was gone and the pocket steel didn't show any light between the hone and steel. The Suehiro took for ever. Hard stone. Now I hope i'm ready for the next couple of razors coming . There are some that I may go back to . when I honed them before the flattening it took a long time to have them pass the HHT. I know the HHT doesn't make a blade shave ready by it's self but if it does pass this test then it's a good place to start the shave test.
Now for the diamond plate. the center and the most of the plate was very dark. about 1/4 to 3/8 in from the edges was light gray and the rest was dark. I could hold it in the light of the sun and see the bright shinny partials of diamond. I cleaned it again with Ajax and it didn't help much. I then got a bar of lava soap. pealed the end and rubbed the bar on the plate and rinsed and repeated. it helped some but still a little dark. I may have warn this plate out to soon. When I got this plate I had a few barbers hones. one of them a Swaty had a pretty good chip in the edge. I used the plate to flatten it out. the barber hones are kind of hard and I may have warn the plate down quicker than it should have. I still have that swaty and one more swaty that is I believe never used. The other stones I had I gave to a friend who collects them. I would have just ruined them. anyway if the diamond plate still gives a problem I order a another one and treat it better. We live and learn. The diamond plate I acquired about Nov. or Dec. 2013 right after I joined SRP. I guess the plates are not indestructible.

Originally Posted by rhensley

Well it took a while. I got a new 220 wet dry sandpaper and went to the kitchen counter. the counter is granite and flat. I ck the counter with a pocket measure the stainless steel type you know the type with the adjustable bar. it's not too long to have a wave. I ck every stone I have the 1K was the worse. I flattened it first then went to the 3/8K and the 5K then the 12K and the last was the 20K Suehiro.

I took a pencil and marked the surface as Lynn showed on the YouTube video and worked until it was gone and the pocket steel didn't show any light between the hone and steel. The Suehiro took for ever. Hard stone. Now I hope i'm ready for the next couple of razors coming . There are some that I may go back to . when I honed them before the flattening it took a long time to have them pass the HHT. I know the HHT doesn't make a blade shave ready by it's self but if it does pass this test then it's a good place to start the shave test.

Now for the diamond plate. the center and the most of the plate was very dark. about 1/4 to 3/8 in from the edges was light gray and the rest was dark. I could hold it in the light of the sun and see the bright shinny partials of diamond. I cleaned it again with Ajax and it didn't help much. I then got a bar of lava soap. pealed the end and rubbed the bar on the plate and rinsed and repeated. it helped some but still a little dark.

I may have warn this plate out to soon. When I got this plate I had a few barbers hones. one of them a Swaty had a pretty good chip in the edge. I used the plate to flatten it out. the barber hones are kind of hard and I may have warn the plate down quicker than it should have. I still have that swaty and one more swaty that is I believe never used.

The other stones I had I gave to a friend who collects them. I would have just ruined them. anyway if the diamond plate still gives a problem I order a another one and treat it better. We live and learn. The diamond plate I acquired about Nov. or Dec. 2013 right after I joined SRP. I guess the plates are not indestructible.

Same info, just busted it up with the 'enter' key to make it easier on the eyes.

The suehiro is a bear to lap. The Atoma 1200 is the best diamond plate there is IME, but pricey.

Try the unused Swaty without lapping it, whether it is flat or not. The old barber's I knew never flattened them, or anything else AFAIK, and I'm curious as to whether it would be as good as a flattened one, or even better ?

The formula/composition might be affected by lapping ........ or not.

Your diamond plate isn't trashed, just dulled/worn. Clean it with Bar Keeper's Friend - it's the best cleaner for diamond plates I've used. Mine turned almost brown for weeks after lapping some barber hones. Cleaning with Bar Keeper's Friend made it look almost new again. Didn't speed it up any though.

Yea, barkeepers works, put it on scrub it in with a stiff brush, Bix paint stripping brushes are great for this. Like a big stiff short bristle toothbrush.

Let it set for 10-15 mins and scrub again.

The powder works better than the liquid.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Yea, barkeepers works, put it on scrub it in with a stiff brush, Bix paint stripping brushes are great for this. Like a big stiff short bristle toothbrush.

Let it set for 10-15 mins and scrub again.

The powder works better than the liquid.

Where can I find this elusive cleanser. where I live I shop at Walmart Kroger's the usual places and I haven't found it. do I need to go the nearest bar . just joking but I have looked.

Originally Posted by rhensley

Where can I find this elusive cleanser. where I live I shop at Walmart Kroger's the usual places and I haven't found it. do I need to go the nearest bar . just joking but I have looked.

i just got it at my neighborhood Ace hardware.

I get BKF at the local grocery store.