Howdy: I'd like to start refreshing my blades as needed. I was thinking of buying the Nawina 12k stone, but not sure if I need to get the lapping plate along with it. Thoughts?
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Howdy: I'd like to start refreshing my blades as needed. I was thinking of buying the Nawina 12k stone, but not sure if I need to get the lapping plate along with it. Thoughts?
If you end up buying more hones, you'll want a lapping plate. I'm fairly certain in six months I've spent more than the cost of a lapping plate on sandpaper. I should have bought one. But I do find myself buying more than the necessary amount of hones. What's that saying about a fool and his money?
Just cut to the chase and get a DMT Coarse (325 grit) 8-inch plate. Sandpaper seems cheaper but is more time consuming. You want to spend your time using the tool (the razor), not assembling a tool to make a tool useful to make another tool useful.
The DMT will need a little prep work once in its life to knock off the excessively large diamond bits, otherwise it'll always be ready to go.
Need no. But as the above replies indicate you will want one.
Any reason I should go with this over the nawina lapping plate?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecl
It is more maintennance friendly and what I'v heard there is now DMT manufactured larger lapping plate rather than hone used as lapping plate.
I have never read anything good about the Naniwa or the Norton lapping plate. The DMT is very useful. If I quit straight razors and sold off all my stuff I would keep the DMT.
I bought the Norton plate when I first got into this. I wasted about a quarter of my 4/8K (and at least 2 hours) before I wised up to the fact that my lapping plate was nowhere near flat. I got the DMT, used the Norton plate to knock off the big crystals, and got what was left of my 4/8K into perfect shape in about 10 minutes.
The Norton flattening plate's only true function is to get a real lapping plate -- like a DMT -- into prime shape to do its work. Oh, and you can squash injured wasps with it. But I wouldn't use it on a hone. Waste of time, money and energy.
Thanks everyone for the great advice so far. I think I will spring for the DMT. What can I use to knock off the large diamond bits?
I've heard that the shaft of a screwdriver will work to knock off the larger diamond bits. Someone more knowledgeable will be able to verify this.
I've never heard of all this violent knocking off of diamonds stuff. What I've read, and what I would do, is get a long screwdriver, as above mentioned, and lay the shaft of said screwdriver on on end of the DMT. After it's been placed there, I'd glide it back and forth over the surface of the DMT plate about thirty times, paying attention for the moment when everthing feels a little less skippy. But perhaps you do need to bash the DMT with the screwdriver. :w I'm not an expert. The big DMT mentioned isn't new. It's been for sale at least 5 months, as it was the one I found the first time I went looking for lapping plates. I chose the weekly expense of sandpaper over the one time outlay of 150 bucks. Ofc, time's have changed....I'd have it paid off by now I think.
There are numerous ways to clean off the bits, including the screwdriver option. If I didn't have this otherwise-useless Norton plate, I'd simply find an inconspicuous area of sidewalk and do figure-eights on it with the DMT for a couple of minutes. It doesn't take much. Some plates don't even need any of this treatment, but both of my big ones and one of my little ones had rough spots on the outer edges and one or two persistent little devils right in the center.
And the $200 dia-flat plate is massive overkill. The $47 D8C is sufficient for all but the most fanatical hone lapper. The coarser D8X is good for harder hones, but it'll eat a Naniwa in no time.
+1 DMT 325. In my limited experience, the DMT 325 has been way easier to work with than sandpaper on glass which was the only other lapping method I tried. I ended up with a 4"x10" but the 3"x8" is super too. I'm glad I got the 4"x10" but that is entirely personal preference. With a Norton, Naniwa or other brand of lapping plate, I've read that you need to lap it right out of the box to ensure it's nice and flat to begin with. Then if I am not mistaken, it needs to be lapped regularly as you use it, although I am unclear at what intervals this needs to be done.
Here is one of the threads where gssixgun gave us his input on this topic: http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ost942686Enjoy! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Cove5440
If you do decide to use the screwdriver method consider consistency. When I did mine, it didn't take much as I had only one high spot, I laid the round shank of the screwdriver across the whole plate and ran it along lengthwise about 4 times so it got broken in evenly and not just in one spot. Maybe I'm just too meticulous :P
Thanks Andrew. I thought it was gssixgun, but I couldn't remember, so I left that part out.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewK