Thread: These just came in!

Originally Posted by TexasShaver

Ok, can someone elaborate on a "well worn" DMT 325? Im not too thrilled about having to constantly buy sandpaper and lapping on glass. And if the 325 is the starting point for lapping, what would be another good alternative to maintain a flat surface on an already lapped stone?

If you don't want to use sandpaper or loose grits on glass. A diamond plate is a good option be it DMT or Atoma.
If you don't hone much, an already flat 4k stone can somewhat maintain an 8k stone.

a well worn 325 dmt is a dmt that has been used many of times to lap stones and has become worn (not as aggressive as a new 325 dmt)

Is ther much concern of grit contamination in hones in general? Say you used a 1000 grit synthetic to lap a finer stone say 8000. I have a DMT XX coarse for lapping some of my stones I use for knives. I know some guys use a flattening stone, sand paper, or another stone to lap, just wondering if you have noticed any odd random coarse scratches from wee bits of embedded particles from the coarser stone/sandpaper/DMT?

As for HAD, don't really have it bad, but I have wanted a couple natural stones for a while now, and I have no stones for finishing, or razors in general.

I will play with these for a while, then I will likely pick up a set on Naniwa stones bit by bit, as I figure things out.

Depends on the Hone in question, but yes cross contamination is a concern, in fact a probability..

There was a time in the past when using the next lower hone and lapping to crazy high grits was looked at as the correct way to do things, Scrubbing the hones with 3M green pads and running water was also part of the routine to cut down the cross contamination..
I did this religiously for a few years and 1000's of razors,, Used a 1k to lap the 4 k and a 4k to lap the 8k and the 8k to do the 16k etc: etc:
I finally stopped after I bought the Shapton 30k and the stupid expensive DGLP they sell to lap it.. It dawned on me the if the Hone with the highest proved grit available was designed to be lapped with a 325 Diamond Grit plate then everything else that was a lower grit would be fine too Haven't looked back since..

I do use different techniques and higher grit for Oil Stones and Barber Hones...

Wait a few minutes and somebody will be along to tell you that if you lap to a higher grit the stone performs better Personally I haven't found that to be true with Waterstones

Originally Posted by PierreR

Is ther much concern of grit contamination in hones in general? Say you used a 1000 grit synthetic to lap a finer stone say 8000. I have a DMT XX coarse for lapping some of my stones I use for knives. I know some guys use a flattening stone, sand paper, or another stone to lap, just wondering if you have noticed any odd random coarse scratches from wee bits of embedded particles from the coarser stone/sandpaper/DMT?

As for HAD, don't really have it bad, but I have wanted a couple natural stones for a while now, and I have no stones for finishing, or razors in general.

I will play with these for a while, then I will likely pick up a set on Naniwa stones bit by bit, as I figure things out.

I'd spend the extra buck and go for the Chosera variant of the Nanis when you choose to do so. AFAIK they use a different binding material and that could be the reason I like the feel of these better than the regular superstones.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

The best was the guy claiming 50k Japanese naturals and within 6 months he changed it to 100k.. You can't really call it wrong, but ya sure can smile..

LOL...to his/her credit, the stones may have actually contained some 100K (or higher) grit...as a matrix for the 8-12K grit

I am convinced that there is something going on at the edge that is beyond my understanding. Finer is not always better, and not every razor reached the same endpoint with the same methods.

Steel alloying and treatment is a deep subject that few (me included) seem to really comprehend fully. There seems to be little discussion about these subjects on razor forums, and LOTS of focus on the rocks we drag the across.

I'm not suggesting that any razors are bad, but perhaps some are better than others and finishing one if these "others" on some uber stone might just be folly.

I am not sure I am really squeezing everything out of my 8K yet anyway...

Maybe he wasn't referring to the size of the grits but the shear number of them, 100.000 gritty particles.