Thread: Two basic questions regarding the DMT D6E

Hello gents,

I purchased a nice DMT D6E, but I haven't used it yet. I think it would be wise for me to ask you if there's anything I should know/do before using it.
Should I lap the DMT? If so, should a 360 grit sandpaper do the trick?
The DMT is one-sided only? The side that does the work is the one that is the topmost face when laying the DMT and the label on the side is not upside down, right?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Leon

Hello gents,

I purchased a nice DMT D6E, but I haven't used it yet. I think it would be wise for me to ask you if there's anything I should know/do before using it.
Should I lap the DMT? If so, should a 360 grit sandpaper do the trick?
The DMT is one-sided only? The side that does the work is the one that is the topmost face when laying the DMT and the label on the side is not upside down, right?

Thanks!

Just hone a knife or a chisel on it before you use it on razors to break it in. It's one sided, and the diamond surface is the one "above" the label.

DMT plates are not lapped. They are flat when you get them, nd they will be flat until the day you die.
If you somehow manage to damage it, there is nothing you can do.

What some people do before using them is to take a chisel and rub the back of that chisel (or screwdriver, knife, ...) on the DMT to make sure that the sruface is clean and broken in.

Those DMTs have 1 useful side.
Normally there is writing on the side. If the writing is readable, the top side is the honing surface, and the rubber feet go on the bottom side.
You can also verify this by dragging your fingernail across the surface.

Just what I suspected.

Oh, one more thing. Should I use the DMT dry or with the aid of some drops of water (or slurry)?


Thanks gents!

Use it with water, no slurry. I make a point to pull the shaft of a screwdriver along the edges of the plate to remove any spurs or high spots that might catch the razors edge. Run your fingernail along the edges to make sure you have gotten rid of any troublesome spots.

Originally Posted by Leon

Just what I suspected.

Oh, one more thing. Should I use the DMT dry or with the aid of some drops of water (or slurry)?


Thanks gents!

Use with water, you can't get a slurry on a diamond stone. Diamond stones are thin layers of diamond bonded on to a metal plate. So laping them, slurries and the like are not relevant.

They do make double sided 6" dmt stones. I have a DMT 6F/E

I usually add a drop of dishwashing detergent to the water. This breaks the surface tension. Otherwise, I find that the water stays in bubbles on top of the DMT, surrounded by dry spots.
One drop of soap remedies that.

A great way to break in a DMT, is to lap a coticule with it. A while ago, I had the chance to compare my well used D6E to Tim's (another Belgian SRP member) brandnew one.
The difference was quite striking, even to the point where we contemplated for a while that Tim's DMT was defect. It turned out that Tim's DMT just needed a lot of breaking in, more than I ever recall to have done with mine.
Even after it's broken in, a DMT smoothens out over a prolonged period of time, much like sandpaper does, but unlike sandpaper, it takes years of use to wear it down completely.

Best regards,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

I usually add a drop of dishwashing detergent to the water. This breaks the surface tension. Otherwise, I find that the water stays in bubbles on top of the DMT, surrounded by dry spots.
One drop of soap remedies that.

I found that I don't get the same kinds of beading if I just put the stone in water upside down. That seems that the roughness of the diamonds is enough to prevent beads from forming if not enough to break up a bead of water.

Bart:

Apart from running my fingernail across the hone, how do I know it's broken in? I've got a DMTD8C and DMTD8EE. Looking under my stereo scope, I can tell when the scratches are going away, but there are small nicks that I'm assuming shouldn't be there. Would this imply that I'm not honing enough, or that the hone isn't broken in well enough yet?

Again with the stereo microscope.... (see my post in "Finishing Stone").

Frankly, all I did was lap hones with mine, they smooth out pretty quick, particularly if you lap a harder hone like a barber hone. If there's a patch of diamonds that are causing a wee bit of scratching or gouging of the hone you're lapping then sure... grab a piece of steel and work on that area a bit if you like.

As for the 1.2K and 8K DMTs, I would sharpen a few knives or something like that first as diamond plates are aggressive and can microchip edges of hard razors which is part of the reason why I rarely use them for razors unless I have a lot of work to do.

And +1 on the drop or two of dish detergent in the water...


Regards

Christian