Well that didn't take long

Just lapped my Chinese 12k and it only took like 10 or 15 minutes, using 220, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grits. I rounded the edges on the 220 and it literally took like a couple of minutes on each grit. After reading about it on here, I was expecting it to take me a good hour or two to get the job done. Some questions, is this a good or bad sign of whether or not this would be a good hone? Also, does the suction of the stone to the sandpaper mean that I got the surface flat? It was really sucking to the wet/dry paper. Just curious.

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Originally Posted by EucrisBoy

Just lapped my Chinese 12k and it only took like 10 or 15 minutes, using 220, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grits. I rounded the edges on the 220 and it literally took like a couple of minutes on each grit. After reading about it on here, I was expecting it to take me a good hour or two to get the job done. Some questions, is this a good or bad sign of whether or not this would be a good hone? Also, does the suction of the stone to the sandpaper mean that I got the surface flat? It was really sucking to the wet/dry paper. Just curious.

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You must a got a close to flat one since most take forever!!

As far as I know, the best way to tell if your hone is flat is to make pencil marks all along the surface of the hone, and then keep lapping until they're all gone (someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Not sure about the time element. It's a possibility you just got yourself a really flat hone to start with, in which case lucky you :)

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Originally Posted by tlittle

As far as I know, the best way to tell if your hone is flat is to make pencil marks all along the surface of the hone, and then keep lapping until they're all gone (someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Not sure about the time element. It's a possibility you just got yourself a really flat hone to start with, in which case lucky you :)

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About the pencil grid a proven method for sure i usually do it twice that way im positive its all good to go!! Enjoy!!

The pencil marks went away real fast and the stone started to develop suction pretty quick.

Did the stone seem very soft? Tons of mud coming off quickly?, or was it a hard stone just already pretty close to flat? Maybe if it's a soft stone that's better? I really don't know.

The only problem I have with lapping on paper is that the edges of the paper tend to curl up, and I'm not careful then the outside part of the hone rubs against this and becomes uneven.

----Michael

It did seem soft. I noticed that it didn't really take long to develop a slurry on the sand paper. It feels almost like glass but the stone was already flat to the naked eye, or near it.

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Originally Posted by mjsorkin

Did the stone seem very soft? Tons of mud coming off quickly?, or was it a hard stone just already pretty close to flat? Maybe if it's a soft stone that's better? I really don't know.

The only problem I have with lapping on paper is that the edges of the paper tend to curl up, and I'm not careful then the outside part of the hone rubs against this and becomes uneven.

----Michael

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you got a soft c-nat took me 145 min to flaten mine . when flaten stones i draw a pencil grid once the grid is gone i draw another and do 10 lite circles if the grid is gone after that its perfectly flat it not back two step one .

Is it being soft a bad thing, would I want it to be harder to lap for it to be a better hone?

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Originally Posted by eleblu05

you got a soft c-nat took me 145 min to flaten mine . when flaten stones i draw a pencil grid once the grid is gone i draw another and do 10 lite circles if the grid is gone after that its perfectly flat it not back two step one .

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harder the stone usually the finer it is but let your face tell you if its a good stone !

You cannot conclude that it is a soft stone because it
was lapped flat quickly. The stone might have been
quite flat before flattening.

Put your razor on the stone and feel it. It's easy distinguishing
a hard stone from a softer one.

I suggest you smoothen your guangxi hone with a soft tomonagura
if you have that.

Sharpman

I got one on the bay from a Polish fella a while back. It is a hard stone and slow finisher. Definitely improves the edge off of an 8K. It was lapped flat when I got it, but I wanted to be sure and lapped again. So I didn't need to lap it much, maybe 10-15 minutes. But that does not mean it is soft, but already mostly flat.