Thread: the correlation between stone's surface polishing degree and the honing it offers

Well, I have noticed some hones like the charnley forest, LLyn Idwal and turkey oilstone have to be lapped to a very fine, glass like finish to offer their finest finish for a blade. Other hones, like the Chinese 12k, yellow lake and many other usually harder stones, after used they tend to get glossy. do their honing abilities change according to the luster they have? It happens quite often on my hones, they do get slower but I'm not sure if they get finer. What is your opinion on this matter? Should I lap them to get them a bit coarser or not? Thank you

I have read it makes a big difference with some naturals, but do not care for it. The reason that I never lap beyond 325DMT is that I use slurry on my naturals, which is constantly refreshing the surface.

Thanks for the quick answer. It also depends from what someone uses to produce slurry. A diamond plate is usually preferred for its speed, and don't allow a highly polished surface to be formed, but with a slurry stone of the same stone used for honing, this glass like surface will be formed on many hones. And when this happens, polishing becomes quite difficult, because of surface tension (I think this is the name of the term), especially if they are flat, and used with water.

Many of my naturals do not have a slurry stone and I do not wish to use a DMT for the scratches it leaves, neither did I wish to cut a piece off leaving it smaller. What I have is a small piece of Lyn Idwall. (CF works also). It is harder than any other hone I have and works wonderfully as a slurry stone, as slurry is only generated from the hone itself, not the Lyn Idwall being so much harder. The piece of Lyn Idwall is like glass. It works nicely on coticules, Thurinigans, Silkstones and Yellow lake.

Yes it makes difference, on CF, and Jntas. I in general like to have all my stones as smooth as they can be.
I do not agree that when used with slurry scratches do not matter, but to each his own.

I have recently purchased one Llyn idwal, it was freshly lapped around 1k but when I used it, it scratched my blade. After that, I lapped the stone with 15k lapping film with 5k sandpaper between, and it became much more gentle on my blades. This stone was one of the reasons I opened this thread. I think it has much to do with the hardness of the stone. For the softer ones, I don't think it means something, and even less difference it makes when used with slurry. Don't you have problems with the surface tension between the razors and the blade(when they stick together like two pieces of glass with water between them)? For me, it turns the happy honing time into a nightmare.

Your stone may have been lapped to 1k grit by the seller but he could have rushed it. It's also possible dirt from the box got on the stone's surface. Some of those UK stone boxes are awefully dirty. 15k seems a bit excessive but kudos for trying

I agree that hard stones seem to benefit from a finer finish. Instead of fine sandpaper or lapping film you can also finish by rubbing it against another hone. I recently did this with a suspected Llyn Idwal and a 1k waterstone, it worked quite nicely.

I cleaned the stone, and lapped it with a 1k stone again, it was clean. And I used it with WD40. Yes, it's true that you can rub it with another stone, for finer hones, I use Chinese 12k pieces. It seems to me, under clear water its faster than with slurry for lapping stones but I might be mistaken.

i lapped my c12k out to 800wet or dry and now i use it almost exclusively with .5micron diamond slurry..... the stone has taken on a almost "mirror" like smoothness and altho it is slower than christmas it produces very very fine edges......

Do you use the stone without the 0.5μm diamond slurry? If yes, do you think it's finer than before? I usually lap my C12k with 600 grit diamond plate, and regardless how fine it gets after with honing, I don't see noticeable difference.