Thread: 12,000 grit specialty stone

You can* use the Norton lapping plate, BUT the thing about them is...you have to flatten the lapping stone first before you can use it. And you have to keep the lapping stone flat with fairly regular lapping as well.

Sand paper on a reasonably flat backer will work. I used an old cookie tin and sand paper for a while. This is A-OK if all you do is the occasional touch up with your Naniwa 12K. However, if the honing bug bites you, you might end up like me - the local auto parts store knew me by name for how much of their 3M sand paper I was rifling through.

At that point, you're money ahead to do as Cuda suggested and buy the DMT. Needs a little bit of break in so it ain't so rough, scrub it lightly with a chisel for a few hundred laps to knock off the loose/tall diamonds. Comes dead flat, never needs re-flattening, and lasts a lot longer than sand paper. I've also seen the Chef Knives to Go 400/1000 diamond plate recommended often. It's got a lower price tag than the DMT, and as a bonus has 2 sides instead of just the 1.