Thread: DMT lapping?

I had heard somewhere that it isn't wise to use to coarse a grit to lap stones as they can actually affect the grit of the hone being lapped (that sounded confusing after I wrote it). I have a Shapton 16K stone and was wondering what would be appropriate to use to lap it with.

The DMT 8 C will work fine for your Shapton. It is 325 grit and does a fine job on most stones. The grit of the lapping plate doesn't affect the grit of the stone being lapped. That is set when the stone is manufactured (or formed, if it's a natural). The lapping plate can affect the surface texture of the stone being lapped and some users will go to either a finer plate or sandpaper if they are concerned about it. I don't, and haven't really noticed any negative effects from using a 325 grit lapping plate, whether it is a DMT or a Shapton DGLP.

Thanks very much

You can use the DMT method or the sandpaper method. I used 400, then 600 grit sandpaper on a big chunk of granite that was cut out for a sink...before I had it, i simply used the countertop and care to not scuff the stone to the countertop. Didn't take much for my stone to get the grid cleaned up and gone, hope yours is the same.

8BallAce,

The highest 'grit' stone I have is the Naniwa 12k, and the finish my DMT325 leaves on it is excellent - the razors don't complain anyways

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

You may be thinking of Spyderco stones, which are said to be damaged by lapping, in a way that changes their effective grit. I have no idea why this would be the case, but have read it in a couple of posts by reliable sources.

I know you have to be careful using wet/dry sandpaper. With some of the cheap sandpaper grit from the paper can come loose and embed into the stone.