Thread: Forego pastes/sprays completely?

I have gone about learning the wrong way. I ignored all the advice and bought what I wanted instead of what I needed. Now that I have learned more I stay with a 3k/8k naniwa combo (similar to a 4k/8k norton) and coticule. Keeping things simple and listening to advice makes life a lot easier.

samgab, lapping film is basically sandpaper only the abrasive is applied to a thin sheet/film of plastic, not paper or cloth. It comes in aluminum oxide and diamond. I have found that the edges that come off of a full progression of lapping film are stellar. I am sure you will be able to get some. I have been able to get them in A4 sized sheets and cut them into the size I need. One A4 size gave me 4 hone sized pieces. Although I now use a Japanese natural hone to finish, the lapping film was a great way to stay cheap as long as you don't use the diamond stuff.

Originally Posted by walto

The chinese water stone is a really hard stone. It will take a long time lapping the hone on sandpaper.

Yeah, you'll drop $20 (easy) in w/d sandpaper and before you finish lapping it. Think about investing in a DMT. At worst, use the DMT then sell it as used for $10-20 less than what you paid. The money is the same, but you save a few days of lapping.

Christopher

I lap my King 1K/6K and Chinese stone with a "diamond" plate knife sharpening system I got a Harbor Freight. Cost was like 10 bucks and it has 4 different grits in it. I have even used that for setting the bevel on a wedge ( it was very ugly but worked ). I also have used W/D sandpaper and a granite tile to lap them and found the plate works a little better as well. Just use it under running water and I had to angle mine slightly to get the full surface of the stones in a single pass.

Originally Posted by Stubear

I've basically stopped using pastes and sprays now, I just come off my finisher and go right to the daily strop. It works very well..!

I never used pastes and shaved off the CH12K for a long time with excellent shaves. 1 - 1 1/2 pass BBS shaves. I did buy some of the CrO2 powder a while back and it smooths things up a little but I only hit that strop every few weeks if I want to delay a touchup.

Just got some 100K and 200K mesh diamond spray for my knives. I might try it on the razors some day but there is currently no motivation.