Thread: Finish hone after flattening?

I took it upon myself to flatten my new Norton 4000/8000 and my Naniwa 12k, and they turned out to be un-flat from the box. Now they're flat, but the surfaces are rough and almost gritty. I cleaned them and put one of my good razors on them and now I have a rough, micro-chipped edge. It still shaves fair but is harsher. Am I supposed to "polish" the stone or smooth it somehow after flattening? It was really disappointing to lose my smooth edge.

What did you flatten with?

The Norton flattening stone

Sorry no experience of that. Someone else will probably know more. Most of us use dmt's. Some of the flattening stones have bad reps for not being flat themselves and needing more flattening than what they're flattening. Someone who knows that particular one will probably chime in soon. Have heard some Nortons need a good bit lapped off before being ok too in some cases.

No offense but what is your razor honing experience,, it could just be you, take with a grain of salt here because most new guys don't get their edges smooth the first few times no matter what hones. They have, as to lapping your hones, I,m not so sure scratches would hurt much cause their under the surface, but I don't hone ,
There is a lot of threads dealing with lapping and not many use that lapping stone, most would use sandpaper first. But really look to your technique and not assume you will be doing it right. Tc

I have only been using the hones a couple of weeks. The razor that I mentioned, I honed it when I got the new stones, and I was able to get a smoother edge before using the flattening stone. I kept feeling the edge feel like it was bumping over particles occasionally even after thoroughly washing the stones.

Maybe I overhoned the edge, since I started with an already finely honed edge. How do I start in repairing this problem?

When you say the surfaces are rough and gritty, is it just one or all? Are you talking about appearance, or feel?

Reason I ask, is my Norton 4K took quite a bit of lapping before it lost the gritty feel. The 8K has noticeable scratches by appearance, but feels smooth as silk. These are both flattened with the Norton flattening stone.

edit: The flattening stone needs to be flattened too. I used a piece of marble tile and 80 grit emery cloth.

It's mainly the Naniwa 12k, but all are that way some. I can see small linear abrasions, but it is mainly a piece of grit or two that I feel.

Most people do not use the flattening stone because it requires maintenance and lapping as well, so if you use one you need the tile and emery or w/d. I have one but to be honest I have not used it for a very very long time. I personally use DMT plates. I have a lapping plate and then two finer plates. Because my hones have been double grid lapped and are very flat I use one of the 3x8 plates to clean and maintain them when I use them and they will likely be forever flat. I wee bit of a round over on the edges when cleaning keeps them from snagging my razor and I'm off to the races. I would think that if you use a lapping stone, they are quite coarse, you should finish you 8K and 12K with some higher grit wet dry on a flat surface, like a tile. Water is also important when lapping and always soak your hones before lapping.