Thread: Lapping a Nakayama

If you read old text that include advice on sharpening there is always mention on lapping-though I do admit it is often minimal information usually offered almost as an aside.

So yeah, in the old days it seems there was less emphasis on perfection, but they were surely aware it needed to be done. But we need to be careful to understand these kinds of books are often written for novices to work at a certain level. If you intend to do work at the highest level it will require some additional effort and attention to detail.

The Complete Japanese Joinery and Odate's Japanese woodworking Tools, both of which provide instruction on the care and use of tennen toishi include methods for lapping.

They are not razor books, but they are examples of teaching texts that provide info every beginning sharpener should know.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yamashi.ta .

Watch your language Bruno !

Bruce mentioned lapping away parts that are not used and Chimensch said he finishes his lap on 1000 paper. Here's some food for thought:

As i have mentioned before I do use a little bit of pressure and scrubbing back and forth(side sharpening style) at the beginning use of each stone. I usually do this across the width at the ends of the stone, both bevel at the end and spine at the end. (And somewhere near the end of the time I'll spend on that stone i do it some more with a very light touch)

It works extremely well I believe and the cost is free- the material would just be wasted lapping back to flat later.

Also progressive lapping is a bit wasteful. One thing- the need for a coarse grade shows you have let the stone go too far. And that little bit more to refine the scratches on the hone surface doesn't really do anything beneficial(as far as I know)

Using the whole stone, minimal frequent lapping are the best ways to conserve the stone- besides not using it.

I never check my hones, or pencil grid them so I thought maybe I should before writing all this- so I did. nakayama on nakayama:12 strokes(not laps) and almost all the pencil was gone(i would use it like that) 12 more and it was all gone.

it would take some very sophisticated state of the art measuring equipment to determine what was lost. I may sharpen 5 or 10 or 20 razors before i need to do it again; it just depends on how much use those razors require.