Hey folks, recently got my hands on a Awasedo Ohzuku, laying a flat edge on it i see a slight smile in. I have always lapped newly acquired natural hones with a wet n dry paper progression and then burnished with a gold dollar or a chisel, however that was when i didnt have a half good diamond plate (i have a pretty nice little razor rotation so i get by on stropping and refreshing and dont hone so much, so my shiny stones stay shiny and flat pretty well).

The plate i have is a 400/1k combi with the diamond pattern on it similar to the Chef Knives To Go ones, its quite well broken in as i have been taking my moms kitchen knives to it to take the edge off it for a while.

Tonight i took the 400 side to a la roccia just to see how harsh it would be, as i wanted to know before i put it near the jn, in short its pretty scratchy but i have seen on tube vids people using down to a 325 just for slurrying a nat and it still looked mirror afterwards.

anyway, to keep it short, i aint tryed the 1k on the la roccia yet but wanted to know what kinda grit you guys go to on a finishing nat hone on a first lapping? do you just hit up an extra fine dmt or equivalent or do you go higher with wet and dry/sand paper? before burnishing

Thanks guys