Which grade lapping stone for the 4000/8000 waterstone?

I have been getting by on a strop alone for my first 6 months now, and I know I'll need to learn honing to make my razors last for years. So I got the Norton waterstone which so many have recommendwd, but now I understand that it has to be lapped before I can use it. With a sigh I decide that I would never find a flat surface in my house for a sandpaper lapping, so I'll need some sort of lapping stone.

So the relatively inexpensive Norton lapping stone looked like a good deal - until I found out that it's good only for Norton stones. I still need to buy other hones to play with the bevels on a couple of eBay specials. Compared to waterstone prices, there seems to be many more low-grit hones that I may be able to bevel with, offered by many companies and cheap, but of course most of them need to be lapped too. Now I see a lot of buzz on the DMT D8C.
1. Whether it's the cheaper Norton lapping stone, or the nice DMT, they come in different roughness ratings. Which degree of course do you recommend as the maximum roughness for a 4000/8000 waterstone?


2. I now see that DMT produces "whetstones" too - do they need to be lapped, and do they actually require water, like waterstones ("whet" vs "wet)?

3. It's also implied that DMT products are flat out of the box. Is this true of all their hones (stones), or does that only apply to the diamond-embedded steel plates?

1. 325 is what almost everyone uses.
2 & 3 I don't know....

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Originally Posted by Chevhead

1. 325 is what almost everyone uses.
2 & 3 I don't know....

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Thank you - but does that mean "course"? Because when I previously googled this (under DMT 325) I got sites listing additional descriptors with DMT products of that number. Often that included "course", but I believe I saw descriptors such as "extra course" and even "fine" associated with "DMT 325", Perhaps I had let the Google gun confuse my brain but anyway I am sort of confused whether "325" describes grit, or if it arbitrarily enumeratess a DMT products!

My concern with that question was whether a lapping stone can be too coarse, and thereby too rough on the hone which it is applied to.

As far as I know they sell diamond coated steel plates. They are flat out of the box but need to be broken in with a hard piece of steel for about 20 minutes if you are going to use them on razors. If used for lapping I would rub some hard steel on it to knock off any loose diamonds, you don't want those in your hone. A flat piece of glass or granite tile would allow you to lap your Norton's with 220 grit wet dry. I have 325 600 and 1200 grits. I use the 325 for lapping.

In the Advanced search box on the top type in DMT 325. That should answer any of your questions. Good Luck
!

Oh Yeah.... Welcome Also bluroot!

The Search Box Will Be Your Best Friend.... :)

Most people use 325 for lapping. You can use the x coarse but the 325 is great.I have never had issues with the 325 being too rough to lap with. Finer grit will be ruined IMO if you lap with it. I never did but that's what I have heard. I bought the Norton lapping stone and it needed to be lapped before I used it. I spent about 55 on the 325. Well worth it IMO.

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Originally Posted by bluroot

1. Whether it's the cheaper Norton lapping stone, or the nice DMT, they come in different roughness ratings. Which degree of course do you recommend as the maximum roughness for a 4000/8000 waterstone?


2. I now see that DMT produces "whetstones" too - do they need to be lapped, and do they actually require water, like waterstones ("whet" vs "wet)?

3. It's also implied that DMT products are flat out of the box. Is this true of all their hones (stones), or does that only apply to the diamond-embedded steel plates?

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A.1. a 325 grit hone is just right.

A2. From the listing I found they are plastic backed interrupted steel plate hones and should be used with water.

A3. The solid continuous steel plates are usually flat enough for us but not to a very high standard, like the dmt lapping plate. The plastic backed diamond hones are much less likely to be flat enough, but flat enough for rough work.

If you are also going to use hard naturals or barber hones lapped on a low grit diamond hone you may encounter issues. If you want to use sandpaper almost any piece of glass can be used as a backing plate to lap on.

Jonathan

bluroot,

It's a metal plate and coated with diamond fixed with, I believe, nickel. Honing a razor isn't going to damage it.

However, it's not exactly a bevel setter. A 1k hone is more appropriate for bevel setting. The DMT is good for removing a lot of steel in short order. It's an aggressive hone for heavy, grunt work. Lapping stones, and heavy repairs are its main function.

Howard :)

The dmts are harsher and can cause microchips, but if you need to remove a lot of metal, they work great IMO. They do cause microchips. After I'm done with them, I flatten the edge on the side of my 4 k slightly and reset the bevel with the 4 and then up from there.