Thread: First Attemp at Lapping

I purchased a few barber hones and was told to lap them to make sure they are flat. I looked around and read and figured the cheapest way for me to accomplish this at this point.
I had a few sheets of 1000,1500,2000 and 3000 grit sand paper. I needed a flat surface so I went to the local glass store and talk to the owner and explained what I wanted to do. He sold me a piece of 12x18x5/8 tempered glass. he told me as long as the pressure was on the top or bottom, not the side, the glass would not break from any pressure exerted by me pushing on the hones.
I thought about starting with a larger grit paper but figured I should start with a grit that would be more forgiving, I chose 1000 grit.

I chose to learn on a Dixie hone that I picked up a few weeks ago. I put the piece of glass in the kitchen sink on top of a rubber mat, ran the water, layed the paper down and slowly worked the hone on the sand paper.
I think it worked well except that it took a very long time and the paper was worn before the pencil mark in the center of the stone was removed. I think I need to get 600 or even 300 grit paper and try again.

Comments please!

Here are a few pictures. You can see the paper was worn out pretty well.

Paper, glass and hone.



Hone after being worked on the paper for about an hour. white so is from the paper towel I wiped it with)



The worn paper.

Lapping a barber hone should be a last resort done only to remove/soften chips. When you lap a barber hone, you are removing the surface that was produced by the manufacturer and are making the hone more coarse.

ooops...well that explains a lot…I had a barber hone that was clearly dished a bit, so lapped it, and yep it felt a great deal coarser to the touch. So that slick finish is important, I guess?

At least mine was a cheap hone!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Lapping a barber hone should be a last resort done only to remove/soften chips. When you lap a barber hone, you are removing the surface that was produced by the manufacturer and are making the hone more coarse.