Thread: Chinese 12 lapping question

So I'm considering buying a Chinese 12k to replace the .5 micron micro abrasive sheets I use as a final honing stage now as I no longer live near a Lee Valley and they want nine dollars to ship me the equivalent of 5 pieces of paper... My question is this, can I lap a Chinese 12k with the following equpment

A wide array of sand paper
My kitchen counter top
End list

The way I lapped my barber hones was to just lay the piece of sand paper flat on my counter and rub, rub, rub. It seemed to work well enough... Or is this no where near good enough for a razor hone?

I used an old scrap of 2 x 4 and tapped some 100 grit paper to it and went nuts.

Pencil mark grid and away we go. Worked great. Would assume that your counter is flat, just check it with a level.

I guess the countertop will work as long as you are willing and able to get it pretty wet. In order to remove the swarf you need to keep a lot of water in the mix.

If you have a place locally where you can go and buy one, That's a plus. If they'll let you check out what they got and check them with a straight edge, it might be helpful to you. You may find one as I did, that's not too bad. My main C12k, needed very little lapping. I was lucky, I've heard some horror stories where it took some guys hours to do.

Low grit paper will work provided you use an abundance of water! These are very, very hard natural stones that like/need to stay very wet in order to lap them properly. I too would at least progress to 600 or 1K for a little while once it is lapped flat. This would be to assure that the gouges that the low grit paper will assuredly leave are polished down a bit. Some gouges can be deep enough to catch the razors edge. Lots of water and elbow grease are all that's needed.