Thread: at what grit should hair pop at?

The lapping stones by Naniwa and Norton are hones like any other - they do not necessarily come flat out of the box, and they need periodic lappings. It's the diamond on steel plates, like DMT's, that come flat and stay flat. For me, this is a big part of the draw to DMT's.

Thank you everyone, this post and the answers were quite useful

If you have one of those little hand held microscopes sold at radioshack it makes honing a lot easier. You can actually see when each stone replaces scratch patterns on the bevel and then you can do an arm hair test and move on to the next stone.

You should be able to cut arm hairs right after the first stone/1K stone.

There is a ton of info packed in here,,,I didn't realize that you guys were using so many slightly different techniques...
I do mean "slightly" here, just tiny little tweaks each or you do, I find that very interresting...

Zib you were right I do use every one of those stones when using the Naniwa SS's I do the same with the Shapton set, just seems to work out very well for my style to take many smaller steps...

The only thing I could add to this actual thread though, is that for me, I have found that the Naniwa SS's can be rather deceiving when it comes to many of the same sharpness tests I use on the other stones.. They impart a very SMOOTH edge as you are honing, that I feel is a bit smoother than other sets at those same lower levels...
When I first got my NSS set I couldn't get anything to pop or feel right in the middle so I was backing up a ton, until I finally just pushed through to the end and realized that my sharpness tests didn't work quite the same...
Now I am used to it, but it took quite a few razors before I learned the difference for me...

Now I am heading to the Honing Alter and putting a very nice Filarmonica through the Naniwas can't wait for the test shave...