Thread: Soaked Naniwa too long. Any recovery?

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Synthetic stones do not stay flat no matter what you do, at least mine don’t. Every time I grit lap them, which is not often they are not perfectly flat. I lap all my synthetic to clean, before I put them up to dry and before each use after a quick dunk and they are never the same flatness. You can see a color difference.

But it really does not matter, a stone does not have to be perfectly flat to hone a flat edge, it will just ride on the high spots, not as efficient but will work just fine.

Many of the old school Japanese knife honers, do not lap their stones flat, it wastes too much stone. They just work on the high spots to wear the stone evenly.

The Super Stones are really more of a splash and go stone, a quick dunk and lap and they are ready to go. I use a squirt bottle and a plastic tray to catch the water and swarf and keep a film of water on the face of the stone. Works much better than a spray bottle.

Super Stones also load up faster and need more lapping to remove the swarf, so a quick lap with a 325 or 400 diamond plate keeps them reasonably flat.

+1 to all of the above, with special emphasis on the bolded text. There was a thread on here years ago with an interview with a very experienced aged Japanese honer. His method was exactly as stated above. No lapping, just work the high spots as you went to gain flatness.

I've also said many times, no old barber whose brains I used to pick relentlessly back in the 1980s ever mentioned flattening their hones. OTOH, I flatten mine but as stated above, none stay flat with one exception. My Norton 4 & 8 single grit only need flattening from use. The environment does not affect them. Must be the binder, they apparently are not polymer. As far as the leaving the superstones soaking .......... Any day of fishing is better than a good day of work.