Thread: Lapping

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.

I am a big fan of the shapton but I only use it for refreshing--never for lapping and it never touches a natural hone.

Are you sure your DMT is trashed and not just filled with grit? Have you tried cleaning it with a cleanser like Comet and a plastic or brass brush?

You can use the old DMT as a flat substrate for holding w/d sandpaper, which is the cheapest lapper.

I use a DMT 325 to flatten at least three hones per week. I clean it every couple of months and usually get about 5 years of service out of one.

So I recommend cleaning it as well.

When using SIC I judge trueness by how water flows or puddles on the hone. When the water stops puddling on the hone and just have thin even coat of water then you will be close to 0.005 inches of being true. Which is usually good enough for me.

Thank you guys for the advise, I will give my dmt a good scrub and see what happens

What are you lapping that you trashed a DMT?

When you are first hogging off material to flatten, the plate or the substrate does not have to be dead flat, just flat-ish.

When using Silicone Carbide a large cookie sheet and a flat piece of concrete works very well. I lap soft Naturals and Synthetic with Diamond plates, you can also use Wet & Dry. Hard Naturals I lap with with Silicone Carbide beginning with 60 grit, it goes fairly quickly and Wet & Dry. Hard Naturals will eat diamond plates.

Chef Knives to Go sells a great 140 grit diamond plate for $30 , that will get you to flat quickly, then switch to Wet & Dry or a 300 grit plate, depending on the stone.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

I use a DMT 325 to flatten at least three hones per week. I clean it every couple of months and usually get about 5 years of service out of one.

So I recommend cleaning it as well.

When using SIC I judge trueness by how water flows or puddles on the hone. When the water stops puddling on the hone and just have thin even coat of water then you will be close to 0.005 inches of being true. Which is usually good enough for me.

This is interesting. I never would have thought to watch water pooling. How did you figure that out and how do you know how accurate it is?

Not dogging you, I'm generally curious. Do you set the stone down somewhere level to judge?

Also my DMT got blown out in less than a year because I lapped anything with it. Hard naturals and even an arkie for a couple seconds before I realized it was demolishing it. Works great to make slurry and refresh but the diamonds are so rounded it needs quite a bit of pressure.

As said above keep your diamond plates away from anything that doesn't slurry quickly.

I use a nice cold rolled piece of steel I had flat ground . It works a treat with sic.

How do you guys wreck a DMT 325 ???

Seriously

I completely wore out a dia-flat with only a few hundred Arkansas stones,even lapping in a trough of water with light pressure the diamonds wore out.cheers.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

How do you guys wreck a DMT 325 ???

Seriously

When I got my DMT325 I used it for anything. I had a SWATY that had deep chips so I held it under the running water and worked the chips out. now I didn't loose all the diamonds but lost them in the wrong places so when I lapped the naniwas it would lap uneven . gave trouble until I bought a new DMT325 and lapped my hones and now I can do a better job of honing. anything can be broken if you try.