Thread: Hone Flattening/Preparation

Alright, so I'm set on the DMT8C, but when i google it i cant find any vendors. where could i get my hands on one?

Originally Posted by VasterBlue

Alright, so I'm set on the DMT8C, but when i google it i cant find any vendors. where could i get my hands on one?

Try PMing Howard, or go to his website: theperfectedge.com !

Bought mine from howard. He is a member here, though he is not much online these days. His service is excellent, and his prices are ok.

I always lap my stones a little before a honing session.

I use wet and dry paper.....wet....on a flat surface (usually glass). I've used wet and dry as low as 800 grit and as high as 2000 grit. I've used large table mats and chopping boards. Just as long as the surface is even, flat and solid.

With a coticule, I would not go below 1000 grit and I do not wash the slurry off the flattening bed as it eventually replaces the 1000 grit with the coticule grit.

I lap my hones until I feel the stone sucking to the wet and dry paper.

I don't have a special lapping hone as has been recommended. In England however I spend $2 per sheet of wet and dry and the paper does not last long at all. A bespoke hone is actually good value for money in the long term. Even if you change your mind, you could sell it on this forum and not loose much more than you will spend on sheets of wet and dry.

Why did this get moved to the hone review forum?

edit: Huh, it's in both, weird.

Originally Posted by VasterBlue

Alright, so I'm set on the DMT8C, but when i google it i cant find any vendors. where could i get my hands on one?

I don't know if you got the D8C yet but the best place to get it is Craftsman Studio. They're having a sale on Dia-Sharp stones right now and it's only $35.50 + shipping and their service is great. The sale ends late May so you'll want to hurry.

I lap about 10 stones a week and have for the past five years. I put the DMT 8" Coarse stone in the kitchen sink and adjust a stream of water over one end. This will wash away the swarf as it forms. Put your hone on the DMT and rub lengthwise in slight ovals. Turn the stone end to end every 20 or so laps. Note that the hone will first develop a lighter area in the center if the hone is crowned and lighter areas at the ends if it's dished in the center. Keep lapping until the entire stone surface is the same lighter color. This holds true for artificial and natural stones. Some folks make an X pattern with a pencil but I don't and you don't need to; just look at the stone and you'll see the lighter area progress across the stone. Use some pressure when lapping as you're trying to abrade a stone.

I just started lapping the Spyderco Medium with the DMT coarse. Meaning I've been working at it for about 2.5 hours straight and am just now starting to see results. My concern is that the Spyderco Medium (and the DMT) are much smoother now than when I started. I've made sure to not press and just let the Spyderco's weight do the work but I worry that I'm ruining a couple of hones.

Someone reasure me that just because the Medium Spyderco now feels like a Spyderco Fine to my thumbnail, that it really isn't!

I am Sooo looking forward to flattening the Find and Ultra.

I use my lapped hones straight off the DMT coarse 325.


Iron_Beard: Spyderco told me in an email that lapping the Ultra Fine will void the warranty on it. I lapped my M, F, and UF anyway, with a DMT D8C, using no pressure. (My specimens were all barely w/in the "allowed" tolerance of =/- 0.020.)

Combined time was over 80 hours for all three... My DMT survived quite nicely and my three spydercos all act well when used in a normal progression. With that said, I haven't used my Ultra Fine in months. It's a nice hone but I simply prefer barber hones for a final polish (if you ignore the occasional newspaper).