Does everyone know that you need to lap/flatten a new hone right out of the box before use?

I've read a lot on razor forums where people use stones right out of the box without lapping them first. I've seen it in pictures and noted many making comments about this. I also know from talking to my customers and knife sharpeners that they too do this as well. It seems like this bit of information has been lost or never known, I can't say which but that doesn't matter.

The fact is that a Japanese synthetic waterstone comes with a sort of surface crust that needs to be broken through and lapped away. Not to mention that many aren't flat and lots have ink and even stickers on the surface that need to be dealt with. If you don't break through the surface of some stones they actually won't work almost at all. I've seen it countless times where a sharpener buys a new set of pricey stones just to be left scratching his head after the first use pondering how these things could be so highly regarded when he can't get them to do anything decent for him. He then thinks that either the stones suck, the people who gave the advice on the stones are idiots, or he doesn't know what he's doing -all very frustrating things to deal with.

I have found that there are some exceptions to this rule but they're few and far between so when you get a hone lap it and all will be good.

Remember, I'm talking about Japanese synthetics, not naturals or any other nation's sharpening stones, they may well all be different in this sense.

Dave