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I'm using the dmt 320 to lap my new blue i got from howard. however, i'm wondering if i'm doing something wrong because as i'm lapping the dmt is leaving some pretty bad scratch marks on stone. am i doing something wrong? are the scratches supposed to be that bad, or does that mean those are the high spots and i just have to keep going? will the deep scratch marks go away. the yellow bout i got from howard, which he lapped does not have the scratch marks like i'm leaving on the blue. help!!!!!
Is your DMT brand new? DMT plates can have some roughness to them often on the edges and ends. The Blue scratches very easily. My guess is that the DMT has some spot/s that are raised, and they're digging in to the Blue when you're lapping. All you need to do is keep working at it and the DMT with smooth out a bit. You should be able to watch closely, lap slowly and determine where the scratching is originating from. You could even take a kitchen knife and run that over your DMT a bit to "break it in". Don't worry too much about the scratches. They should not affect your razors when honing. Be sure to bevel or round the edges of the stone with your DMT.
If you're not keeping the stone flat on the DMT when lapping, you COULD be dragging the Blue across one of the corners of the plate which would gouge the stone.
Just some guesses here.
Chris L
Off course you are using water while you lap? I lap in the kitchen sink with water trickling down. You want to keep the slurry from building up. On my D8C and D8E I took the round shaft of a long screwdriver and ran it flat on the DMTs to smooth out any irregularities on the top and on the edges, Never had any scratches such as you describe on any stone I have lapped with either of these DMTs.
everything is new, and i am using running water in the kitchen sink. i think i'll run a chisel over the dmt 320 to get it smoothed out like i did the dmt 1200. i guess i'll watch the corners too. thanks guys, i appreciate ya'lls responses.
I noticed that my D8C had a small high spot on one edge as well, it was quickly flattened by lapping a barbers hone which is quite a bit harder than the Belgian blue. The chisel thing would work just as well I would think.
Regards
Christian
Are you sure you need to lap the blue? When I got my Blue and Coticule from Howard they did not need lapping and most natural stones like those are quite hard and can go a very long time before lapping is required unlike ceramic hones.
I'd just keep lapping the Blue. Steel is softer than the stone and garnet crystals so you'll just end up doing more work.
The tiny bit of material that you'll lose because of the scratches is negligible when you consider the fact that that stone will outlive you. (unless your just a sharpening fiend)
On a side note, those scratches won't hurt your blades either, don't worry about it too much.