Thread: Can I lap with plywood

Can I lap my barber hone with 800 grit sandpaper stuck to a flat piece of plywood then placed on my flat tiled floor? Thanks!

I don't think that will work. The plywood is neither flat enough or rigid enough. I'm assuming that this is a serious question.

Just get a piece of stone tile and use that.

Thanks - sorry first time lapping and just having a look at what's in the house but now I know. Out for some stone tile. Cheers.

Originally Posted by ganboyi

Can I lap my barber hone with 800 grit sandpaper stuck to a flat piece of plywood then placed on my flat tiled floor? Thanks!

How bad is your barber hone? Which one is it?

Lapping barber hones is often unnecessary
or ill advised so proceed with caution.

I would first scrub it with soap, water and a green "scotch brite"
kitchen scrubber then test it. Since a barber hone is
small and held in the hand it will comply and match
the razor when an equally lumpy bench hone will not.

The risk and problem is that once you start to lap a hone
to flatness you need to finish it and do it correctly.

While not recommended, it might be possible to improve
a well abused barber hone by gluing 800 grit paper to plywood.
The tiled floor should not be needed. But none of
us can precisely assess your hone over the internet for you.
You might do less harm by placing the abrasive paper
on a towel and lightly buff the surface of the hone.
The green "scotch brite" will do a better job.....

By improve I mean reduce any cupping and not generate
a facet with a bad transition. This is almost impossible to
do without going all the way to a flat DMT and removing a
lot of the hone.

Thanks Tom,

It is a shumate hone and the person I bought it from was using it without lapping, he said I could lap it but that it didn't neccesarily need to be. I think it is in pretty good condition except for some chips in the edges. There are some really really tiny pits in the surface but only a couple and very small. I will take my scotch brite pad, scrub it and try - thing is this is my first hone so not quite sure what I'm looking for. To me it looks flat. Cheers!

If the chips in the edges are in the path of the blade's edge take some fine sandpaper and smooth out any part the razor would hit. Other than that I wouldn't do more than cleaning as Tom suggested for now. If necessary you can always lap it later but it is a lot of work and may not be necessary.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

If the chips in the edges are in the path of the blade's edge take some fine sandpaper and smooth out any part the razor would hit. Other than that I wouldn't do more than cleaning as Tom suggested for now. If necessary you can always lap it later but it is a lot of work and may not be necessary.

Exactly... and worth repeating.
If necessary you can always lap it later

Also you can worry the roughness out of small chips with
a common nail so they do not catch the razor.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Exactly... and worth repeating.
If necessary you can always lap it later

Also you can worry the roughness out of small chips with
a common nail so they do not catch the razor.

Good idea ! Never occurred to me.

Of interest you can audition the hone with the razor.

He can mark the spine and the edge with a black magic marker and
give it one or two gentle smooth strokes. If the entire edge is touched
by the hone and the same is true of the spine then the razor and
hone "Play together" and lapping is not necessary. Some
tuning is possible by adjusting the stroke on the hone so remarking
and retesting may be a valuable exercise.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Of interest you can audition the hone with the razor.

He can mark the spine and the edge with a black magic marker and
give it one or two gentle smooth strokes. If the entire edge is touched
by the hone and the same is true of the spine then the razor and
hone "Play together" and lapping is not necessary. Some
tuning is possible by adjusting the stroke on the hone so remarking
and retesting may be a valuable exercise.

I do so like your answer! "Audition the hone"....