Quote Originally Posted by DrNaka View Post
I do not think that there are 2 schools.

By 2 schools I just meant those who want the smoothest finish on their stones & those that can get the same result with light scratches on their stones.


Now lets go back to the lapping and smoothing discussion of hard Jnats.

Onimaru-san knows that a smooth surface is needed for final lapping.
He writes:


So he knows that DMT #325 makes bigger scratches, a new Atoma 1200 medium scratches, a 7 month old make smaller scratches and the very old Atoma 1200 is best of all.

This experience and observation is in line what I am saying. You must have a smooth surface of the stone.

I completely agree here

Oniomaru-san writes also:


This is the same as I write the softer the stone more tolerance to scratches made by diamonds.

This is also true

If you have a very hard stone like the very hard shoubu discussed in this thread I recommend to make the surface as smooth as possible.

Well, here is where I would prefer to say "make the surface as smooth as necessary" rather than "smooth as possible".
I don't know how hard this particular shoubu is as it is a long way from where I live but I know my Nakayama Asagi (pictured above) is very hard & as I said before I have tried both ways with this stone & the Atoma 1200 is perfectly adequate as a slurry stone in 99% of cases. I am allowing for some error as there are no absolutes
DrNaka san, thank you for your explanations. I know we are mostly in agreement just not completely