Please don't let the title fool you I have some serious questions about this. As I have been getting back into razor work I have been doing a lot of honing and pretty much blu out my dmt. Well this leads me to try to figure out what to replace it with. So after a lot of reading I have found several different options, but this leads me to even more questions. So the first is as I have been told there are two different types of lapping. Freshing up and trueing and shaping. Freshing up is lapping while you are honing just to bring up fresh cutting surface. It seems to me that this would be done best with a dmt type hone. I was thinking about a trend hone for this. They seem to have a very good looking and working surface and a good warranty. So with this it would seem that this would last for a long time. Now the second issue to address is the trueing and shaping of the heavy lapping. This is where my dmt has taken a beating. There seems to be many options here. The first one is the Shapton diamond hone. They work great but the 380 dollars would be just the beginning for the divorce lawyer I would need after buying it. So that one is out. I can also use a dmt style hone but I will be replacing it fairly quickly. The next option I have is the SIC powder. I like the idea but this is where I start having the questions. When you lap you are lapping to make them true. If you use the sic on a granite tile how does one make sure that these are true, or are we just going for close enough. I mean how true does the hone have to be. And how long can you use the tile for. I figure you would get a track worn in it pretty quick. Also does one have to use a different tile for each grit. And also would you have to use a different tile for each hone. I am most likely over thinking this but it is questions I have. Please if anyone can share info on any of this it would be great. Thank you all.