Thread: Lapping a Chinese 12K

I thought this stone was pretty smooth and flat until I started lapping it. A DMT DuoSharp+ (coarse side) under running water made quick work of it. After holding out for a long time, I'm beginning to like these diamond hones.

A flat hone is a must for success. The diamond surfaces can make short work of it.

Yep I do all my 8k and lower sharpening duties on diamond hones, they just can't be beaten for speed, consistency, minimal mess, minimal fuss, etc.

And they do double duty as lapping plates for my finishing stones.

DMT's for me too. Now if only they would make a diamond barber hone...

Do others lap their Chinese with only the diasharp coarse, or do you proceed to use a fine grit to make the Chinese smoother?

I got mine yesterday. Lapped with the coarse dmt, then rubbed it with my 3k for about 1 minute and then my 8k. Of course I wanted to try it out so I took my razor and did 5 laps, on the 3k, 10 on the 8k and about 60 (wet) on the Chinese, but it didn't do very well on the armhair and when I shaved today it was unimpressive. However, before my 2nd pass I did a few passes on the CroOx and the 2nd pass seemed pretty good, but it's hard to tell after the so-so first pass. I'll have a better idea after I try it again tomorrow.

(Sorry to resusitate an old thread, but it made more sense than starting a new one.)

I tried finer DMTs and the surface was no different than with the coarse.

I would say that the 12K is a polish hone and that you need the edge to be 'there' before you move to it. I have done as many as 80-100 laps wet before I saw the scratches mostly removed. I saw more scratches removed when I finished up with several laps dry.

Now that you tried it wet, try 40-50 more laps dry and see how it shaves.

I think I found an answer to my question after various searches. It seems a lot of people do move to something smoother than the dmt coarse, though maybe not all the way to 8k.

Originally Posted by kelbro

I tried finer DMTs and the surface was no different than with the coarse.

I would say that the 12K is a polish hone and that you need the edge to be 'there' before you move to it. I have done as many as 80-100 laps wet before I saw the scratches mostly removed. I saw more scratches removed when I finished up with several laps dry.

Now that you tried it wet, try 40-50 more laps dry and see how it shaves.

Thanks. You posted just as I was reposting.

My blade was sharpish before I began so I don't think it needed more time on the lower grits. In fact I wouldn't have sharpened it at all except I wanted to try the Chinese that had just arrived I'm eager to see what it's like tomorrow. After that I'll try it dry. Looking forward to experimenting.

-Tom

In my opinion, it's just pointless to try to lap the Chinese 12K with anything finer than the 325 grit DMT. The stone is so hard that the finer grits just aren't going to have any effect. It might be that I had an exceptionally hard stone but mine took over 30 hours to lap with a 325 DMT. The first time someone else asked me to lap a Chinese 12K provided me the incentive to get the 120 grit DMT, which made it much faster but still took a few hours.

From my experience, I would say that lapping a 12K with finer grit is about as effective as rubbing it with a marshmallow.

Originally Posted by Utopian

From my experience, I would say that lapping a 12K with finer grit is about as effective as rubbing it with a marshmallow.

Marshmallow ... what's the grit on that?

It's funny. I've read a lot of the posts about the 12k. Some folks say it laps fast, others say it takes forever. Joel on B&B said it was 'a bear' to lap. But mine lapped in about 4 minutes. I was surprised and so redid it, but the second time it took only 1 minute. I wonder if there are variations in hardness and if that would affect grit rating or not.