Breaking in a DMT

I have read in several posts that DMT hones need breaking in. Why is this? Just curious what happens to the hone during break in.

When you first get your DMT it'll be aggressive as hell. For straight razors you'll find they perform better with a little wearing in. It'll reduce the scratch pattern a little, but not much, & help reduce micro-chipping. An old chisel, or plane blade will be enough to soften it up a little.

Would lapping my Boss Barber hone work to break it in?

What I do is break them in with the shank of a long (12") Stanley screwdriver because that is what I have to do it with. That is only for plates that I use to hone razors or sharpen knives. Plates that are used only for lapping waterstones, barber hones or what have you , I don't break in. Lapping the stones (no pun intended) will suffice for that. Just IMHO.

The synthetic diamonds in DMT stick out of the surface pointy and sharp.
Initial break-in reduces these high spots and leaves a more fine finish.

You should, like Jimmy mentioned, use an old tool to work it in.
I don´t know about your barber hone, but be careful with stones that are very hard

You could try lapping a black Arkansas. That broke in mine :)

I heard about a lot of broken DMT after lapping Arkies :banghead:

I got mine primarily as a lapping plate, so lapping my hones on it broke it in pretty well. My Charnley Forest in particular really mellowed my DMT out..! That is one hard stone!

Since then its turned into a really good edge repairer and its probably nearer 500 grit now.

I would not suggest wearing in your F or XF etc (1200 or above) DMT by lapping on stones. The finner DMTs tend to lose diamonds when being lapped on hones, especially fine and hard ones. So just use a metal object. One guy destroyed his DMT 8k that way, fortunately the company gave him a new one ... 'phewww'

I wore my F (1200) in with lots of knives, backs and cutting edges. Really went hard and it was still really agressive, i mean i punished the hone with fear that id wreak it and it still tore at the edge like crazy. Felt great. :) But the thing that has really worn it in is honeing lots of razors on it :D
Is nice and mellow now although i still find it leaves deep scratches... hmm might need to buy another hone ... :D