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.

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.

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.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

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.

+1

I might note/ add that the initial slurry will finish the
process as the early hone strokes with a razor
worry the slurry and the hone surface to finer bits.

After this the dilution process will further remove the
aggressive slurry and leave the hone "just right".

Folk that tape might also consider that the
steel of the spine is part of this process. The
a'retentative folk might use that old razor with
a lot of hone wear for a half dozen strokes to
condition the hone surface. The old razor may become
your fav' shaver in the process. To one degree
or another this initial slurry interaction takes
place on any hone and with many a nagura/ rubbing
stone.

In my opinion, circles and Japanese strokes that
we see in video by the better hone masters when a razor
first touches the next hone optimize this process

Over time a DMT will calm down and this is less
an issue. You want a DMT that is coarse enough
to be durable and aggressive enough to remove
that half a sheet of paper bit of hone that is
needed to keep the hone flat enough over time.
The slurry is a key byproduct...

When I get my Shoubudani, I'd definitely going to use another natural (probably a coticule) followed by a tomonagura to get it as smooth as possible, but for synthetics or even coticules, I've found no benefit to going beyond my well worn DMT 325. The real Jnat experts on here have explained why you want smoother on level 5 stones, but yeah, for most other stones, probably more would be overkill.