Thanks for the replies.

I used a marble tile for the lapping (ala Home Depot) because I could not find a pane of glass. But I know where I can get one...the marble tile seemd pretty falt to me, and cost a whole 3 bucks.

I used wet/dry sandpaper dry for the first pass (after soaking the stones) because once I wet it, it not only turns into a soup but sticks to the stone, drowns the tape holding it to the tile, and starts moving, making the lapping process end pretty quickly. The water does unclog the sand paper pretty quickly, but keeping it still becomes a major chore.

The scratches are pretty prounounced, so I think I am just going to have the lap them out - the indentation in teh 4k was very pronounced, and I think it really was the reason why I was getting what appeared to be uneven swarf marks on the stones - I am washing these things after every honing session, but water alone was not getting the swarf off the stones, so I had some foaming dial hand soap (which is pretty mild) on the sink and decided try and use the foam to lift out the discoloration, and it seems to work well - my luck it will be that I am somehow screwing the stone up doing that - any suggestions?

HOWEVER, all said and done, I took the razor to the 1m and .5m pasted paddle and test shaved last night - and it was ... amazing. I don't know if it was just that I finally had a sharp enough razor by my own hand to shave with or what, but it was the best shave I have ever had - I only did one side of my face, and then ran to the wife to have her feel the results - and even she was amazed. I will be posting picts soon.

K