Thread: lapping without a coarse stone

OK so it was payday and my buy finger kept hitting the key.
So now in the mail is a new naniwa 12k an eBay Chinese "12k" natural that supposedly was lapped and a 3 line swaty ! So my question is could all these hones be used against each other to lap them flat ? That is assuming they are pretty much there to begin with ? I'm thinking just pencil grid them and see what's what .
Is it gonna work ? Is it gonna take a couple years ? Set me straight on my thinking!!

I do not think what you want to do would work out. You might find this of interest http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-counters.html . Cheapest way to lap is with wet/dry sand paper on a flat suface using running water.

Bob

I've found that cheap dimond plates are good for lapping. Picked up a set of course to extra fine for about £3, there low quality chinese imports but work fine for lapping most od my stones.

Originally Posted by williamc

I've found that cheap dimond plates are good for lapping. Picked up a set of course to extra fine for about £3, there low quality chinese imports but work fine for lapping most od my stones.

I think I likely bought exactly the same set, although I haven't done the dollars to pounds conversion to be sure. I bought the diamond plates for kitchen knives but I now use the fine one exclusively for lapping stones. I fixed it to a piece of kitchen tile with epoxy resin so that it remains completely flat and gives a good surface area to hold onto.

Originally Posted by williamc

I've found that cheap dimond plates are good for lapping. Picked up a set of course to extra fine for about £3, there low quality chinese imports but work fine for lapping most od my stones.

Are they flat?
My experience with inexpensive diamond stones is they are not so lapping with them would be very questionable. Wet dry sand paper as mentioned is a good way to start. A full sheet saturated will stick to your counter top if you don't have a tile or piece of glass, I have used a glass cutting board and wet dry.

Originally Posted by BobH

I do not think what you want to do would work out. You might find this of interest http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-counters.html . Cheapest way to lap is with wet/dry sand paper on a flat suface using running water.

Bob

I have used the counter method - it worked well for me. But all said and done...

Originally Posted by williamc

I've found that cheap dimond plates are good for lapping. Picked up a set of course to extra fine for about £3, there low quality chinese imports but work fine for lapping most od my stones.

... I really do prefer using a DMT. Fast and flat - and great on knives.

I use 320 grit wet & dry on a thick 1/4"-6mm glass sheet for all mine for over 6 months now with no problems yet
hones used on
Naniwa 1 & 12K's
Norton 4/8 k
Barber hones - Crown, Pike Swaty and a Tam O'Shanter
but I would not use a hone on a hone to flaten or clean up due to the possible cross contamination of grit sizes as each breaks down to slurry

If you want to use a hone for lapping it needs to be fairly coarse and truly flat. I have used a 220 to lap my nortons and a few others. It works but it takes a lot of water and you need to keep it flat with a piece of glass and wet dry. It kind of puts you in the same place if you only have one or two hones to lap.

OK sounds like a lapping stone is gonna be next on my list. Sooo DMT 325 ??? Is that the consensus ?

they work very well for lapping. Some guys prefer the 1200. There is actually a dis-flat lapping plate that is awesome for really rough hone but in my opinion it is too coarse for something that is generally flat, and I never use mine for a surface that I will hone on. I do a lot of lapping from fresh cut rock and do a progression of dia-flat then 325 then 750. Not sure on the last one. I would expect that 325 would be all that you need for now. They are a little pricey