Thread: What to use for flattening hones?

Just received my DMT8C 325 from SRD!! Going to lap my nortons now....

I didn't read through the whole thread, so maybe someone's already posted about this:

8" x 2 5/8" DMT 325/1200 combo at Lee Valley, $86.50.

I like more atoma diamond plates rather than dmt

Dmt 325 have more suction effect than Atoma, for the japanese naturals i usually use the atoma 1200 and it's fast and does not scratch the hone

JUST TO CLARIFY, JUST HOW OFTEN SHOULD OUR NANIWA/NORTON STONES BE LAPED IN NORMAL USE AS Str8 HONE'S???

I DON'T DO IT AS OFTEN AS I THINK MOST OF YOU THINK IS RIGHT, JUST TO KEEP WEAR DOWN ON THE STONE'S THEMSELVES.

JUST WONDERING, GREAT THREAD BY THE WAY, LOTS OF GREAT INFORMATION, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

TINKERSD OF SRP.

I'm not an expert like some people in the forum, but i lap on any session especially on naturals

this way i need only a couple of passes to have the stone perfectly flat, if you lap your stone after many session, it takes a lot more passes to have the stone perfectly flat

Just contrary to my habit yesterday i've lapped a knife stone after many session of use, it take about 15 minutes of lapping before the stone was flat again, against the typical couple of passes i normally do

So i really would advice to light lap the stone any session, gaining also the advantage of a flatter stone

Tinkersd,
When cleaning up my stones at the sink I usually rub them face to face (1/4, 4/8, 8/16) at clean-up. I have shapton glass backed stones and use the glass as an indicator to if I "need" to lap them or any other stones. I consider a stone needing lapped if I can see a gap somewhere around a 1/32nd or over. Each and every one of us has our own "gap" maximum. I worry that too many folks are more worried about having perfectly flat stones and are using up their stones lapping them to literal death. My lower grit stones need more lapping as they get more passes on them. Example, I have a shapton gs 16k that after the initial lapping off of the pencil grid I have not lapped it again because each razor that has been on it only needs 8-12 passes. I'm sure it's had at least 100 razors on it since I picked it up in August of this year.

Originally Posted by tinkersd

JUST TO CLARIFY, JUST HOW OFTEN SHOULD OUR NANIWA/NORTON STONES BE LAPED IN NORMAL USE AS Str8 HONE'S???

I DON'T DO IT AS OFTEN AS I THINK MOST OF YOU THINK IS RIGHT, JUST TO KEEP WEAR DOWN ON THE STONE'S THEMSELVES.

JUST WONDERING, GREAT THREAD BY THE WAY, LOTS OF GREAT INFORMATION, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

TINKERSD OF SRP.

There is not really a schedule.
You lap a hone when it begins to dish,
when it begins to glaze over or perhaps when
you want to generate a slurry.

When switching from one hone to another
you want the next hone to have the same
exact profile as the last. Flat is a profile that
is easy to generate.

In my opinion with modern hones
and a single razor the pair can work
together and even when the hone has
developed a lot of hollowing/ dishing
because the razor and the hone developed
their profile together the shave will
not suffer.

I used a coticle for years with a three
razor rotation. Over time it developed
quite a hollow. Because the hone and
the razors shaped each other over years the shave
did not suffer. Years later I discovered
this forum and decided to lap my hone flat.
The flat hone no longer matched the
bevel/ profile of the razors and it took
a lot of effort to reset the bevel of my razors.
Now I have a shelf full of hones...

So my advice is to lap no more than half the thickness
of a sheet of paper from the hone to keep it flat.
Do this each time you pull out the hone, one or five razors.
Leave the slurry on the hone for the first half of the
refresh process. Use the entire hone to minimize dishing.