Thread: Lapping Shapton w/ DMT D8C

I know, I know this is a crazy question. You said: "The lapping went fine but took some time as the glass is a lot harder than a coticule or a norton stone."

I'm pretty sure you meant glass as in Shapton Float Glass, but with the trouble you describe I simply must ask: Are you sure you're lapping the ceramic face?

My Shaps are from the pro series and like many I started with abrasive paper. I use a DMT plate now and have lapped some seriously abused stones from knife polishing. I just cannot imagine spending an hour on a new one using 325 grit diamond

It was about 20 - 25 minutes or so each, I was lapping the right side the clear face of it and I was using a 1k shapton. I lapped four, so it took about 1 hr for two each time I lapped them.

Originally Posted by bevansmw

It was about 20 - 25 minutes or so each, I was lapping the right side the clear face of it and I was using a 1k shapton. I lapped four, so it took about 1 hr for two each time I lapped them.

Uhh... sorry, but that explanation did not clear things up for me.... There is a clear glass side and a white ceramic side to the Glass Shaptons... It is the white side that is the honing surface, the other "clear" side is only the glass base and you can see the identification marks through it as in the grit mesh and micron size.

If you were lapping the white side of the hone, I cannot help but think that if you spent that much time on one hone, you must have accidentally used the wrong DMT plate or there is something terribly wrong with your DMT such as virtually no diamond grit. For me it was a matter of a few minutes with a almost instant white slurry being developed as I lapped the hones. The Shapton 2000 grit took the longest, my Shapton 16000 grit took the least amount of time which is to be expected as the diamonds have better access to the binder as the finer hones have smaller sized grit.

Regards

Christian

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

Uhh... sorry, but that explanation did not clear things up for me.... There is a clear glass side and a white ceramic side to the Glass Shaptons... It is the white side that is the honing surface, the other "clear" side is only the glass base and you can see the identification marks through it as in the grit mesh and micron size.

If you were lapping the white side of the hone, I cannot help but think that if you spent that much time on one hone, you must have accidentally used the wrong DMT plate or there is something terribly wrong with your DMT such as virtually no diamond grit. For me it was a matter of a few minutes with a almost instant white slurry being developed as I lapped the hones. The Shapton 2000 grit took the longest, my Shapton 16000 grit took the least amount of time which is to be expected as the diamonds have better access to the binder as the finer hones have smaller sized grit.

Regards

Christian

lol


So I had always thought the side you could see the identifcation marks through was the side you honed on. Well I suppose my base is perfectly flat now.

Guess I'll give it another go, I thought the white side was the base.

Suppose if I had read the back of the 16k's package that came in cardboard I'd of seen that, the other three came in black boxes.

whew, now you can sharpen up some sh_teel much more easily

Honestly, that's quite an understandable mistake.... after all, they did name them "Glass Hones", didn't they? Glad we got that sorted out and I'm confident you'll find things going much better this time.

Regards

Christian

I assumed prior to purchasing my Shapton ceramic stones and at that point only seeing pictures, that the honing surface was the glass surface. In my mind, I assumed you'd hone on the side that indicated the grit size, etc. So +1....don't feel bad about making the mistake of lapping the wrong side of these stones.

Chris L