Thread: Can you give me a lapping lesson?

Should the Shaptons (16K) be lapped before each use or just refreshed? What mainly is the difference between the two?

The only exception for barber hones is if you need to correct damage to the hone.

I just bought an old Boss Barber hone. Used the "pencil test". I wore out two sheets of 400-grit paper before it was flat.

I don't expect to do that again for a long, long time.

Charles

dlosborne,

The Naniwas are not homogenous ceramic stones; IIRC they have an abrasive dispersed in a softish matrix (resin ?) and therefore wear similarly to conventional waterstones.

WRT my Naniwas, they needed a good lap intially to flatten, and then on subsequent occasions much less was needed; after a year of using them, it is more of a 'refresh' (like ca 8 - 12 figure of eights with a DMT 325 as demonstrated by GSSixgun in his videos).

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

PhatMan,

Now that makes sense and explains the strange range of treatments I have read. The professionals who lay blades on their stones in tens per day notice wear much faster than others who may sharpen all bladed household items in the numbers of 5-10 every few months. (Assuming three to four kitchen knives, a pocket knife or few, and a razor or few.)

So when it comes to Naniwa Super Stones for less frequent users:
1) Perform a careful initial lapping using the sandpaper on glass method (cheaper and just as effective, though a bit more cumbersome)
2) Apply just enough water to keep the top wet and the small amount of slurry these stones make/use uniformly workable
3) Air dry stones on edge before storing them
4) Check for plane every 15-50 knives based on the pressure you use and the grade (rougher stones more often).

Does that sound right?

Now, so I try to pull this post back from the high-jacked zone and to attempt to address rickboones original question:

All non-homogeneous stones from natural waterstones to wearing man-made stones, like the Naniwa Super Stone series, should be lapped if they are not already plane out of the box. Finally, they stones do wear in time; although some very hard resin stones like the Super Stones take more use/abuse to show it. The rougher stones tend to show it more since some folks inadvertently use more pressure on these than finer hones due to what stage in the edging process they are in (i.e., grinding a bevel versus refining and polishing).

Could the experts out there give me a quick sanity check? Many thanks in advance.

-Dallas