Thread: Lapping Stone

So I just hung up with the fellows from SRD and it seems like all is well.
It's okay to Lapp all hones with the norton lapping stone or with the DMT it's personal oppion. Some believe the norton is a great choice others agree with the DMT

Glad you worked this out. I used my DMT 160 DiaFlat lapping plate to lap the Norton Lapping Stone. Now use both for lapping other stones. I think the Norton may be coarser than 160 grit. I always finish with 220, 400, 600, 800, 1200 sandpaper on my Norton 4000/8000 and my JNS. Smooth as a baby's butt.

Originally Posted by old

Glad you worked this out. I used my DMT 160 DiaFlat lapping plate to lap the Norton Lapping Stone. Now use both for lapping other stones. I think the Norton may be coarser than 160 grit. I always finish with 220, 400, 600, 800, 1200 sandpaper on my Norton 4000/8000 and my JNS. Smooth as a baby's butt.

Holy smokes!! So mean to tell me after I lap the stones I should go over them with sandpaper as well??

The Norton is about 220grit IMO. I have a DMT220 as well and find the scratch patterns are quite similar, the DMT is more true however. I as well as others have question the flatness of the Norton Stone. If you want a smoother finish on your stones then you will need to use sandpaper, a good way to do it is to lay the paper on top of the DMT. Hope this helps

Sandpaper releases GRIT...

If you want a smooth surface, and no grit embedded in your soft Waterstones, then you might try using a Hard Arkansas stone after the "325ish" level on Diamond Plates (DMT, DGLP or Atoma)

I have never found any gain in going to that higher sheen of polish on Waterstones YMMV, on Oil stones I do want that high polished surface..


There is a ton of really good info on Polishing Waterstones in the archives here much of it written my Mparker that you should search out, there are tricks to getting a High Sheen polish on the Waterstones using only the stone themselves too..

ps: The first time you are honing a polished razor and one odd errant piece of grit scratches across the face of the razor or even worse chips the fine edge, it will be the last time you ever use sandpaper