Thread: How about lapping with silicon carbide?

When I visited Iwasaki san and ask of a easy way to flatten the stone (here flatten means the surface of a new stone to a plane (geometry) and not smoothing the surface) the answer was:

"Look for a piece of thick glass 2 to 3 cm thick and about 30cm*30cm"
"put #120 to #140 abrasive (SC) to the glass and lap your stone"

"after that use the 3 stone method to flatten and smooth the stone"

Yes it is the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for almost every single Japanese made waterstone and Japanese natural stones as Schtoo san described.

Originally Posted by DrNaka

"Look for a piece of thick glass 2 to 3 cm thick and about 30cm*30cm"
"put #120 to #140 abrasive (SC) to the glass and lap your stone"

From the description, I assume that this is done with completely dry abrasive. Is that right?

Originally Posted by Utopian

From the description, I assume that this is done with completely dry abrasive. Is that right?

Nothing is done without water.
It is a priori thing to use water so I did not write or Iwasaki san explained.

Thank you for asking.

Originally Posted by DrNaka

Nothing is done without water.
It is a priori thing to use water so I did not write or Iwasaki san explained.

Thank you for asking.

It seemed wrong to me to do it without water, but I thought I should be certain. Thank you for the clarification.

Originally Posted by Utopian

OK, I'll respectfully disagree. I find it highly improbable that a piece of grit, rolling around as you described, would stick to the hone due to a bit of adhesive. If the adhesive was insufficient to remain stuck to the paper, I don't see how it could manage to stick to the hone during all that rolling around.

+1

I used to grind mineral and rock thin sections for a living.
The loose grit does not "stick" even on the samples
embedded in resin if you clean rinse the surface
with each change in the progression of grits.

Much more common is just simple contamination where
particles are not completely cleaned from the surfaces
as you progress from coarse to fine to polish.

The best abrasion is obtained with a very modest amount
of grit. We used to use a rotating steel plate that occasionally
had to be resurfaced in the machine shop to restore it
to flat. For the number of hours we ground on it, it
did not wear very much.

DrNaka, that sounds very much like what I use on my EdgePro stones. It works beautifully.

Still haven't lapped the Norton but will.

Bruce

UPDATE! Sunday I soaked the Norton 4k/8k for a long time, then drizzled some silicon carbide on the glass surface and sprayed a little water. Using the 4k side, I started lapping. The sky didn't fall and the stone didn't wear down to nothing, so I guess it's okay. Did it to the 8k side also but not for very long. I think this is going to work just fine. If that changes, I'll let you know.

Bruce