Thread: How can I prevent my truing stone from chewing up my high grit stones?

lapping compounds, by companies like Clover, have their place in specific applications, but cost isn’t really a consideration.
The sandpaper grit rating itself is based on points, or sharp edges per sq inch. Ie 220 grit paper has 220 points per square inch, 1000 grit paper has 1000 points per sq inch. 10000 grit, 10000 points. Etc. so when fixed to a substrate, these numbers are absolute and repeatable. Loose grit is just that, loose, so you can have anywhere from 120-10000+ points per given sq inch, and that will change with each movement of the stone or media.
Terrific and aggressive for removing metal in a hurry, but not for fine control or, IMO truing up stones that cost well upwards of $100+/stone.
Not that it wont work, its just not as accurately repeatable and absolute.

The mess, not too bad if you set your flat plate on a towel before starting and let the grit, and the lubricity do it’s thing.
Using a towel under the stones when honing is also a best practice for those of us that get yelled at by our spouses when we break out the stones in general.

At the end of the day, once trued up, most stones will stay true for many years, or razors. If you sharpen chisels and tools on those same stones though, much more frequent clean up will be required due to the narrow working width of sharpening strokes.

Good luck.

It's not messy really if you use some restraint. SIC powder is rated by the size of the particles loose rather than by how many in a 2 dimensional measurement on paper. Yes they break down but not before doing a good bit of work on the surface of the stone. For hard rocks made of mostly quartz or silica I have pulled out of flower beds that are mostly round or at least rounded I use 36 grit which is very aggressive. Arkansas stones are a good example. I would never use that grit on a synthetic stone no matter how sow bellied it is. 220 is usually sufficient for higher grit stones but I have it up to 1000 for sort stones and it works fabulously to flatten but even better to lap than a stone which will scratch the daylights out of your soft stones.

I respect dissenting opinions but I have used it for years and never ever had any of the problems others have described. It works well, it works fast and it leaves a beautiful surface behind. As long as you do it correctly and clean your stones well after you should have no issues. In fact, if you do it the way I do it the SIC particles are probably smaller than the grit of the stone by the time I stop lapping.

My experience and my opinions. Take that for what it's worth.

What are you doing with the garden rocks? Polishing for fun, or custom hones?

Make hones from them.

That last one looks like it was basically already a hone before you cut it down. Ridiculously opportune find.

I'm almost willing to wager that the soaps in the background were homemade as well.

I'm surprised how perfectly 320 grit worked. I was expecting very small but noticeable scratches. Instead all my stones look perfectly smooth now.

Originally Posted by outback

Didn't say it won't work, but as for the OP, his skill set isn't at that level...yet. Remember the KISS theory, that's where things need to be with him.

The more complicated things get, the more confusion, takes over. He's already doing enough of that himself, with what he has.

Yeah....if at all possible, post a video of what your doing, or trying to accomplish. And as for your Dovo, I'd bet there was something wrong with it from day one. I've honed plenty of um, and found most to have not been ground properly. Mostly heel and stabilizer issues that cause them to hone a frown. My own, new outta the box, was probably the worst I'd come across. The stabilizer was never ground out too the top of the spine, and the stabilizers were also too thick at the heel. Looked like a wedge, instead of being hollow ground. Sooo, only the heel and 1/3 of the toe were making contact with the hone, until the heel passed the edge of the hone. With a bit of grinding and reshaping, its now better than new.

Mostly I find the stabilizer is too thick at the heel, and need ground more, to obtain the clearance needed for proper honing.

Here you can see where the stabilizer was thinned down.

Attachment 347674

Oh dear. Yours might still be better than my DOVO Astrale. In short the issues were as below:
1. bevels were uneven;
2. spine was uneven too;
3. edge was ground off the center by almost 1mm.

The worst is #3. It's not a smile or frown thing. If you look towards the edge, it's not straight but the center is off towards the side. Such kind of thing is beyond repair. I don't know how but it came shave ready and it covered up all those defects perfectly. I did not notice those until I need to refresh the edge which was 3 or 4 month later and the return window closed. I wish I had seen the video on how DOVO honing razors, which perfectly explained why such edge was created.

My first razor was a Dovo Astrail, Paul at Classic Edge honed it before he sent it, nothing else was done and it was new.

I must have been lucky because i have refreshed it, even killed the edge and started from bevel setting once which was scary because it was my best razor.

Anyway it hones fine and shaves fine, its a lot sharper now i have improved and over the years it will get better and better but like i say, I've had no trouble with it

I did cut myself last week with it, i was wielding it with wild abandon and i poked my face, the opposite side to wear i was shaving, i almost laughed but it was too annoying.