Thread: What is the highest grit you have used on a stone?

After flattening a stone with a DMT Course or sandpaper, What is the highest grit you have gone up to after that?

The reason I am asking this question is my cousin was looking at my new coticule and said they have a lapper at work that would lap it and he stated it was 16,000 grit.

I am thinking about taking him up on his offer. Do you think a stone would benefit from this?

I have already used the DMT 325, DMT 1200, and then rubbed it well with slurry stone.

I now use the DMT 325 exclusively, with nothing after that. It doesn't seem problematic.

Lapping a coticule past something in the area of 600 grit is really pointless. The coticule's surface is constantly releasing particles into the slurry, essentially refreshing the surface constantly thus smoothing it. In other words, a coticule lapped with 600 grit will feel just as smooth as another comparable coticule lapped to something over 1200 grit.

As a note, you really shouldn't use the DMT 1200 to lap, it can be damaging to the higher grit diamond hones if I recall correctly.

Using a 1200 DMT may ruin the DMT, so I've heard.

1K sandpaper is my standard on manmade stones. On naturals, I typically will use a J-nat on a J-nat, a Thuri on a Thuri, coti on a coti, etc. No science behind this -- it's just what I do.

I also stick with the 325 but I do know some guys who go up to 1k grit sandpaper. Be careful using a DMT 1200 for lapping waterstones. The company says no diamond plate above 325 should be used as a lapping plate and I know of guys who wore the nickel binder off the 1200 plate using it on waterstones.

I watched Sham run his diamonds down the drain while lapping a Charnley.

Alright, I will leave it where it is. It sure is a nice stone and I most likely will not use the 1200 on another stone.

Thank you!

I lap naturals with other naturals. I use a worn off DMT 325 first.

Originally Posted by mainaman

I lap naturals with other naturals. I use a worn off DMT 325 first.

I will most likely proceed in this manner for a while now. Rereading my post, I had to laugh, when I said slurry stone it was actually my 6 inch coti that I used on the 10 inch.

If I have scratches left over after my DMT325, I use a barber hone to get those out.