Thread: To lap or no to lap that is the question

Gentlemen

Now I started to pack my hones inventory I guess it is time to make a desition about this abused small coticule I got from a vendor who sold me a vintage razor.
To my knowlege it should be a natural coticule/bbw combo, the point is that the coticule side is almost worn in the midle of the hone (concave shape) and I would like to know if I should lap it an let it flat, maybe usable if there is enough stone left in the middle.
In that case I will be wasting most of the material still left at both ends, another option that came to my mind is to brake it and lap smaller pieces (less material wasted) and use them as slurry stones of my almost new coticule.
Both hones are small 1 1/2 x 6" I could use them as finishing stones but I want to make the best possible choice.
Here is an actual picture for your evaluation and considerations
As allways thanks in advance for your time and comments

I'd use it as a slurry stone if it works well as a slurry stone (performance wise, I mean). Cut it to size, no need to lap it so long as it doesn't scratch your base stone.

That hone still has life. As long as it's straight the short way it's perfectly useable.

From the photo looks like if cut in half by length you have one good half that can lap flat with plenty of stone left.

I think I'd just work on the BBW side. Get it lapped and burnished (if that's what you do with them) And forget about the yellow side.

Seems we have a tie here, I guess I will lap the yellow side ( I can not live with the curved surface) and use it as slurry stone if enough material survives, if not I will have a perfect straigth BBW to work with.
Thanks for your inputs and suggestions

Who has ever used a stone like this as is, without lapping. I bet you get a some crazy secondary beveling, the angle might be "all wrong" I still wonder how it would shave

I think I'd leave the coti side as is, and lap the BBW side.

I'd have to put steel to the Coti, just to see what happens.
Then come to a decision. TBH, I don't think it'd cause that much a problem, besides maybe a softer apex. ( convexed ). Edges become this way, after a lot of stropping.

It would be a nice knife stone for convex bevels.

For razors you could use it and very slightly convex a bevel, but a razor is so short width wise, (1/2 -3/4 inch) it would not convex all that much. Especially if you only use it as a finisher. Most folks only hone on about 4 inches of stone anyway.

It would be an interesting experiment to see just what it does to a bevel, hone it on a flat stone and measure the bevel, then finish on the Coticule side and see how much it changes.

What does the BBW side look like?

You could use the thick ends of the yellow side as a slurry stone without cutting it for a while. Then when the stone is closer to flat lap it. The thick ends are free stone as it sits and you can still experiment with the dished surface in the mean time.