Originally Posted by
kaptain_zero
My personal opinion is that for any of the man made water stones, it makes no nevermind what grit the lapping plate is. Naniwa, Shapton, Norton, King etc. all will be fine right off a 120G diamond plate. For Natural finishers, such as Jnats, Arkansas, the Zulu Grey, not to mention the Chinese PHIG (I'll toss in those small barbers hones here too), a finer grit diamond hone might be of value. As for the infamous Coticule, I'm now firmly in the belief of the use of a diamond plate ONCE to flatten it, then use a (made from coticule) slurry stone for raising a slurry or cleaning it afterwards. I feel that those sharp diamond tips might shatter/damage any protruding garnets and thus ruin the smoothness of the hone.
Our terminology is getting a bit muddy.... We speak of "slurry" honing, but the correct term is "lapping". A slurry is simply abrasive grit in a liquid medium such as water, on top of a lapping surface. It really gets confusing when we talk about "lapping" a stone flat on a diamond plate as the diamond grit is firmly embedded into the chrome/nickel coating on the plate, thus we are actually "grinding" the stone/hone flat on the diamond plate. If we use a glass plate with loose lapping powder and water to lapp our stones, we are indeed "lapping and not "grinding". It all gets very confusing until we all understand what we are trying to say.
Bottom line, 120G is not a problem with Norton and Naniwa hones. Yes, you will see scratch marks on the hone, but it does NOT MATTER. On the other hand, with some natural hones, we're trying to flatten the tops of the grains inside the hone to make it cut smoother... these hones, and these alone, require a smoother diamond plate. And with that, I would suggest that the lions share of the flattening should be done on the 120G plate.... leave the 325G or 400G or 1200G for the finish only, on natural hones (again, this does not include the Coticule hones, which are a very unique beast).
In the "olden days" when there was not as wide a choice, the 325 Diamond plate was the standard we all used. Now we have oversize plates, fine plates, Shapton glass diamond plates and the list goes on. The DMT 325G hone is still a fine choice, the new 120G lapping plate with it's huge size is also a great choice! A flat surface with wet/dry silicon carbide paper is also a good choice. Run whatcha brung..... Don't worry about all the stuff you DON'T have... My dad, who as a barber and had a shop in the "old Winnipeg" shaved many a gent each and every day of his career as a barber, he NEVER had access to all the things things we have today, and he did just fine with what he had or could make on his own.
Unless you stick strictly with a Feather replaceable blade straight, you will NOT be able to buy your your way to the best straight shave ever, you can only practice using what you have, to get there....
Regards
Kaptain "I've spent more than 15 years learning that last sentence....." Zero