Fellow babies,

My understanding is that the Dragon's Tongue from Inigo Jones requires a great deal of lapping for razor use. It arrives rough and must be lapped smooth. Does that mean that if one side is left unpolished, or if it's only lapped flat with a very course wet-dry paper, then I can have a stone with the properties of a dual-grit stone?

I ask because I'd like to fix a beat-up set of kitchen knives. The edges are ragged, with visible bends and serrations from years of misuse. I know that my Coticule is entirely unsuitable for reasons that don't require rehashing, so I'm about to try a Cotcarb that's being loaned to me. The Cotcarb is essentially a 600/4000 stone than can correct the bevel and polish the edge. 600/4000 might be too fine, but I'll find that out in the coming couple of weeks.

Discussions surrounding the DT are interesting, and seem to focus on lapping. It's my understanding that the quality of lapping has a large impact on the speed at which it works. What I'm not sure of (I'm new to this subject, as some of you may know) is whether speed and grit have a relationship that I'm not aware of. If I can lap one side of the DT with course paper, and the other side with very fine paper, can I effectively create a stone with dual-grit properties and then use this stone for kitchen knives? That's the question.

In the event that no one has tried this, then I'd be more than happy to post a review of my findings. I ordered one of those hysterically-named stones from that equally hysterically-named company and it should, hysterically, take an entire month for those Welsh folks (also hysterical) to send it to me. You should know that my girlfriend finds my new fascination with razors and hones hysterical in light of my full beard (that's trimmed only on my neck) and the frequency with which she notices that I need a shave.