Thread: Necessary to Lapp King 4k Sharpening Stone?

Hello,

I recently purchased a King 4k stone from here: Japanese Honing Waterstone - 4000 grit, Knives, Knife Maintenance, Waterstones, Japanese Water Stones

I'm intending to use it to start putting the edge back on an old straight that I purchased from an antique shop and cleaned the rust off. I will then finish it off on my existing pre-lapped 8k and 12k slate stones.

Do I need to lapp the 4k, and if I do what does this involve?

Thanks for any help anyone can give me with this!

I would definitely lap it! There are several threads and pages that explain hone lapping, but here are the basics:
- Draw a pencil grid on the hone
- Lap the hone on wet wet'n'dry sandpaper that is on a very flat base, such as a granite tile or a piece of glass. Start at ~100 grit until the pencil grid has disappeared
- Repeat higher grit sandpapers, ~300 should do the trick to make the surface a bit smoother

Many folks here prefer to use a DMT8C (325 grit) diamond hone instead and it works very well. Recommended if you want to lap on a regular basis, otherwise the sandpaper is much cheaper.

Great, I'll go and get some tile and sandpaper tomorrow!

I don't suppose anyone knows whether or not you have to soak King stones like Nortons?

I don't know, but isn't it on the package/description that came with it?

All hones much be lapped before use.

Yes -- soak that stone. Especially new, it's going to take on a bunch of water, you'll see the air bubble to the surface. If you use it regularly, it will probably be ok to just repeatedly wet the surface before using it.

One more thing -- try this sometime -- shave off your 4k edge, after finishing up with 20 or so feather-light strokes. You may be surprised.

Lap all hones. I soak my Nortons for about a 1/2 hour before use. My King and Naniwa's I soak for about 15 minutes before use. My Jnats and Zulu Gray do require soaking.

Definitely soak the King stone for at least 10 minutes before use and lapping it before first use (and periodically) after a few uses is highly recommended.

You will need to lap any new stone . The King 4k included. If you are going to try setting a bevel with it you may even need to lap it during the bevel set . Depends on the razor of course but it is a soft stone. As above Kings are soakers.

Thanks for all the advice!

I soaked the king, lapped it, and then just about managed to get out a small nick with a bit of minor breadknifing (it was right on the end), and a *lot* of circles. Then I re-lapped it and set the bevel, finishing up on my welsh 8k and 12k slates. Had my first shave with it today and whilst its not quite as keen as my professionally done razor, it is still a pretty good shaver.